From Vegas To Legal

Your update on intellectual property, information technology and regulatory matters

What to avoid for your successfull patenting of a method for playing golf

Posted by Emil A. Georgiev on 28 September, 2009

Yes, this article regards the story of a US case decision. Frankly, where else the Patent and Trademark Office, but also several courts would spend time and effort to examine the application for a method of playing games – a subject matter clearly excluded under the European Patent Convention and its underlying jurisdictions.

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s in Re Lister outlines the funny story of a clinical psychologist having become tired of “the horrendously slow pace of a game of golf” and willing to seek intellectual property protection for a method increasing both, game’s speed and players’ scores. Proceeding without professional help, the applicant first obtained a registration from the US Copyright Office. This very fact almost deprived him from patent grant…

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