There is just no universe in which this news, from David Weinberger, is a good thing:
[T]he US Patent Office will today publish the first application for a patent for a story line. This particular story line — and note that the patent is not for the story but for the idea of the story — involves a college student who falls asleep for thirty years and discovers upon waking that he’s been living a zombie-like life in the interim. The only requirement for patenting your story line is that it be novel and nonobvious.
Wanna get rich? Quick — be the first to patent “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.”
Oh, and then patent, “Everything worthwhile gets patented and trademarked, and then the world goes to hell.”
