Possessed by Possession: Patenting Legal Strategies
(right, "Denny Crane!!")
I expect to see stuff like this on Boston Legal, not on the ABA Law Journal. And how in the world did I miss this anyway -- from BLAWG's May 15 '07 post?
The ABA Law Journal recently published an article about patenting legal strategies. The article, by Steve Seidenberg, was published in the May edition and it titled Crisis Pending: Can a Patent on Legal Strategy Prevent a Client From Taking Your Advice? The Courts May Soon Decide.
Based on what the article reports (which is well worth the read, by the way), not only are tax strategies already being patented, but there are innumerable rumors regarding lawyers seeking patents on real estate and corporate law strategies.
Since issuing its first patent for a tax strategy in 2003, the Patent and Trademark Office has issued at least 52 patents covering specific tax strategies. Another 84 published applications for tax strategy patents are pending. But more than just tax strategies could be involved.
Because parties applying for patents may keep their applications secret if they certify to the PTO that they are not seeking similar patents overseas, the legal grapevine is buzzing with rumors that legal strategy patents are pending in other practice areas, like real estate and corporate law.
They're kidding, right? This was an April Fool's article in May?
More on the drive for possession in our on-going series on the social psychology of conflict tomorrow.
