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I am going to patent masturbation.
16 commentsSunday, August 30, 2009
By Chris Crum
A set of product placement ads for Microsoft's Bing ran during NBC's The Philanthropist. The ads showed two of the characters from the actual show in scenes in which Bing was being used - clearly ads, but still integrated with the actual program.
Not a bad idea right? Well, that depends on who you ask, because Microsoft's ad agency JWT and its parent WPP are being sued over the ad. According to AdAge, a Delaware firm called Denizen claims to have patented this, and alleges that the agency has infriged upon it.
The patent Denizen refers to is here, filed November 20, 2001, and issued February 22, 2005. The abstract describes it as:
A method and system for incorporating thematic content from a particular television program into product or service advertisements uses program-advancing elements of a television program in an advertisement for a sponsor of the program in order to entice viewers to watch the advertisements. Increased viewership of advertisements can result in increased revenue generated from advertisements that may be realized by television programs, television producers, networks, and advertisers.
Well, that sounds about like the Bing ad, but who knew such a thing had been patented? The suit would indicate that WPP knew about it, and stole the idea, because according to AdAge, Denizen says it was in contact with top executives at WPP for possible business ventures, but the talks fell through. Denizen claims that WPP breached a confidentiality agreement and that JWT has stolen their advertising strategy. (via TechDirt)
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Hunh?
The examples and processes defined by Denizen in their patent application basically say that any time any element from a program (television or other dramatic work) is used in an advertisement, well, that's the result of their invention.
For example (#5):
"In a further example of the present invention, Cancer Man from the program "The X-Files" appears in the back of a crowd holding an important folder during a Pepsi commercial. Cancer Man holding the folder is acting as a program-advancing element.
If Cancer Man appeared in the commercial without the folder or any reference to the plot line, he would still be acting as a program-advancing element because of the increased focus on his character caused by the commercial and the message conveyed by such a commercial would be dual; the commercial would be promoting sales of the product being advertised, and advancing the plot of and/or promoting the program."
(And this after stating that the "invention" was beneficial because viewers increasingly do not watch commercials ...)
AFAIK, you can't patent a concept ... only an invention that has been developed into a prototype. So Denizen, while reaping the rewards of increased news coverage, will probably get their patent tossed as a result of their attempt to enforce it.
Yet another failure of the USPTO.