The Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society had an article on the subject in 2004. An inventor/agent who'd read the article promptly submitted sever

The Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society had an article on the subject in 2004. An inventor/agent who'd read the article promptly submitted several applications. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/04/movie_plotline_patent/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/04/movie_plotline_paten... http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20051103183218268 http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20051103183218... (this article's link to the published application is no longer accurate) the ... proponent's website has its own legal reasoning: http://www.plotpatents.com/about_us.htm http://www.plotpatents.com/about_us.htm USPTO publication numbers for a few of their applications 20050272013 20050282140 20050255437 20050244804 You can find those on google's patent search or the USPTO's Public Pair service: http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair And beyond just being... questionable as a type of invention, the applications seem eager to see just how broad such claims might be: 1. A process of relaying a story having a timeline and a unique plot involving characters, comprising: indicating that a first character experiences dj vu to mask an actual event.