Patents on sport moves... reprised

Reprising Robert Kunstadt's efforts of the mid-1990s, attorney John Farmer writes about the possibility of patents on sport moves:

Imagine this: You're watching the U.Va.-Virginia Tech football game on TV. Virginia quarterback Marques Hagans rolls out to his right, does a feint to the left and pretends to pitch the ball left, all to get Tech defensive end Darryl Tapp to bite, then zips down the right sideline for a long gain. (OK, after the recent game, you'll have to use your imagination really well!)

Amazed, the TV announcer says "Hagans just used his patented feint move to ditch the defensive end and to run for a long one."

Well, what if Hagans really could get a patent on this avoidance maneuver? Thanks to a recent court decision, such a seemingly far-fetched possibility became less laughable.



(...)

We'll see if Marques Hagans takes his cue and scrambles for the Patent Office. Of course, he may have a problem with not being the first inventor of the shake-and-bake move, and to get a patent, you have to be the first person to invent the invention. Michael Vick and, before him, Shawn Moore might want to remind Hagans of a little college football history.

Oh, well, been there, done that ... Check LEXIS.