Can you patent a particular type of advertising?

[Polerius]

Could the guy who first had the idea of advertizing on cereal boxes have protected this idea in any way (patent, copyright, …) so that other people couldn’t advertize on cereal boxes except uncer license from him?

More generally, if you think of a novel method of advertizing, can you protect that method so that nobody can use it (for a while)?

My guess is that the answer is ‘no’, but IANALawyer, so I was wondering what the lawyers think of this.

[BobT]

From the USPTO website

What Can Be Patented

The patent law specifies the general field of subject matter that can be patented and the conditions under which a patent may be obtained.

In the language of the statute, any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word “process” is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term “machine” used in the statute needs no explanation. The term “manufacture” refers to articles that are made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term “composition of matter” relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything that is made by man and the processes for making the products.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 excludes the patenting of inventions useful solely in the utilization of special nuclear material or atomic energy in anatomic weapon 42 U.S.C. 2181 (a).

The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be “useful.” The term “useful” in this connection refers to the condition that the subject matter has a useful purpose and also includes operativeness, that is, a machine which will not operate to perform the intended purpose would not be called useful, and therefore would not be granted a patent.

Interpretations of the statute by the courts have defined the limits of the field of subject matter that can be patented, thus it has been held that the laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable subject matter.

A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine. A complete description of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a patent is sought is required.

[Polerius]

@BobT

From the USPTO website

So, the answer is ?

Would this qualify:
“Method and apparatus for disseminating advertising information via cereal boxes”
<Description of how you go about putting the ads on the cereal boxes>

Anyway, even if these things can’t be patented, I was asking if there was any sort of protection, not necessarily patents

[chrisk]

I’m not sure… I would suspect that what you’re talking about would more likely fall under ‘abstract ideas and suggestions’, not patentable. Even if you could patent one process of getting the advertising material onto the boxes, (which would depend on it being not something that there were pre-existing examples of,) someone would be free to come up with their own process to ‘manufacture’ the same results.

"disseminating advertising information via " a particular medium is, I believe, abstract enough to be non-patentable. Take with 1/8 teaspoon salt.

And, for the record, I don’t know of any other legal protections that would fall into this area; I doubt that any exist.

[BobT]

IANAL either so I posted the information so people could figure it out for themselves.

And of course, information from the USPTO doesn’t fall under copyright restrictions either!

[Dewey_Finn]

Some forms of internet advertising have been granted patents, so I think the answer is yes, but then again IANAL.

[Sample_the_Dog]

Prolog: I do work in this field, and I frequently deal with the question of what’s protected and what’s not. And I have a family member who is a lawyer in the patent/copyright field.

@Polerius

Could the guy who first had the idea of advertizing on cereal boxes have protected this idea in any way (patent, copyright, …) so that other people couldn’t advertize on cereal boxes except uncer license from him?

No.

@Polerius

More generally, if you think of a novel method of advertizing, can you protect that method so that nobody can use it (for a while)?

No. If your method involves patentable technology or a protectable heuristic (which is what I think Dewey is refering to) then you can protect that, but you can’t protect your marketing strategies or business model.

This is one of the things that makes marketing so challenging. There’s a very low barrier to entry. If I can do it, pretty much anyone can copy it. And they do.

[chukhung]

Here’s an interesting page with information about some advertising and marketing patents that have been granted by the USPTO. I didn’t see anything as simple as advertising on cereal boxes, though. All the ones on that page are pretty high-tech.[ul]
[li]5,809,242 - “Electronic mail system for displaying advertisement at local computer received from remote system while the local computer is off-line the remote system” [sic][/li][li]6,026,368 - “On-line interactive system and method for providing content and advertising information to a targeted set of viewers”[/li][li]5,948,061 - “Method of delivery, targeting, and measuring advertising over networks”[/li]5,105,184 - “Methods for displaying and integrating commercial advertisements with computer software”[/ul]