- Josh

It is hard to even attempt to figure out if or how IP should be recognized given the current state of lawmaking. Though I don’t know if I would even like to see vegetarian sausages being made.

That’s a laugh-riot right there. The most likely result of Knight’s efforts is that no more good movies will come out at all (since every plot idea that’s patentable soon would be).

The only thing that beats it is government subsidy for tobacco…

“It’s the kind of plot twist that will send some critics screaming into the aisles: Why not let writers patent their screenplay ideas? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office already approves patents for software, business methods–remember Amazon.com’s patent on “one-click” Internet orders?–even role-playing games. So why not let writers patent the intricate plot of the next cyberthriller?

That’s the idea of Andrew Knight, a recent Georgetown Law graduate and bona fide rocket scientist (he has two patents on rocket motors) who has submitted several movie plots to the Patent Office for approval. Like countless other would-be screenwriters working as cabbies and plumbers in Southern California, Knight may not yet have his own hit movie, but he worries about providing the bones for somebody else’s Matrix.

“My hope is that the skeptical public will someday look back and say, ‘I really didn’t think this would have come out at all, if it hadn’t been for a patent system protecting the idea of the creator,’ ” says Knight, who in his day job works as a patent agent helping inventors shepherd their applications through the Patent Office.”