Microsoft's Ad Agency Sued For Violating Product Placement Patent With Bing Ad
from the product-placement-patent?!?! dept
With the rise of the DVR and the death of the captive audience, it's no surprise that product placement has become more and more popular. But would you believe that ad agencies are trying to patent forms of product placement? Apparently, big ad firm WPP is being sued by a company for violating its patent in an ad campaign run for Microsoft's Bing search engine. The patent in question (6,859,936) is for "a method and system for producing program-integrated commercials." Basically, the idea is to use the actors and sets from a TV show to film a regular commercial spot, and then run that during the show itself. Yes, someone got a patent on that. Why? Who the hell knows. This is a perfect example, by the way, of how just because something's "new" it doesn't mean it's not obvious. It's just that it's so obvious most people wouldn't even bother thinking about patenting it.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Filed Under: bing, patents, product placement
Companies: microsoft, wpp
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Not even new!
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Not New
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Re: Not even new!
Who the frak works at the Patent Office? Seriously?
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Re: Not even new!
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Re: Not even new!
But then the patent is for the insertion technology, not for the construct of integrating ads into shows.
Also, I think the construct related to the patent is the other way around: a clip from a show is integrated into a product ad.
But even this, I think, was art prior to 2005.
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Thanks for buying Razorfish, WPP. Now, suck it.
Dell and HP have been added to my list of companies that I won't patronize.
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Re: Thanks for buying Razorfish, WPP. Now, suck it.
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Re:
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Re: Not even new!
/sarcasm
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My favorite?
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We'd all be blinded.
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Hell, I got to do something with 10GB of Ram...
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Basically, we would stop being productive and spend our time gazing at our electronically enhanced navels.
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Oh, you're still at work. Well, keep dreaming. It'll give you something to look forward to.
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Re: Thanks for buying Razorfish, WPP. Now, suck it.
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Re: Not even new!
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Hell it goes back to radio if not theater
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My patent
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Re: Re: Thanks for buying Razorfish, WPP. Now, suck it.
Some of us use Linux, ya know!
Of course, if you read anything on RMS, he is like the broke Bill Gates in the bully department.
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Prior Art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uncle_Al_Show
They were pretty unabashed about the way they pushed junk food on children. See also, H. H. Munro ("Saki"), "Quail Seed," circa 1914
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/QuaiSeed.shtml
A description of a melodrama with advertising incorporated. I suppose it would be too much to expect that the patent office be populated by people of some education or culture.
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So what's so new about this method? Granted, I have not read the patent, so maybe there is something special (like they got away with it.)
I am beginning to think that the patent examiners either do not read and EXAMINE the applications,or they are just finished with 8th grade and can read.
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