you’re seeking to patent. The key point here is that you can be prevented from obtaining a patent if your invention is based on something already in existence—“known or used by others..or patented or described in a printed publication.” [Title 35, USC, Section 102] But enough of the legal stuff. What’s interesting about prior art is that sometimes a work of fiction can prevent you from getting a patent if it reveals the secret sauce behind the invention. Recently a team from National Geographic decided they wanted to find out if they could replicate the method used by Carl Fredricksen in the animated Pixar movie Up! to lift his house off the ground and fly it on his great adventure. Ben Bowie, the executive producer of this event, reported, “We found that it is actually close to impossible to fly a real house.” No kidding! But what they did was create a light-weight house that they flew with 300 helium-filled weather balloons (each was 8 feet high) and two pilots 10,000 feet in the air. Check it out! So could National Geographic get a patent on this? Unlikely, Disney owns the prior art in a little movie called UP! And while you're at it, take a look at the famous Donald Duck Case based on a Disney cartoon from 1949, which also kept one Danish inventor from filing a patent because of prior art. Next time you plan to file for a patent, you might want to Google some of the old sci fi movies. If the movie explains how the technology works, you'll be out of luck. Fortunately, Scottie never explained how the transporter moved people from one place to another in Star Trek, so you can still invent that!.
