Can You Patent How You Cut Your Meat?
from the make-it-stop dept
How long will it be until your entire dinner is covered by patents? A few months ago, we covered the unfortunate rise of vegetable patents, and now we need to worry about how we cut our meat as well? Kaden alerts us to a report about how some "meat processing specialists" have figured out a "new" way to cut a beef carcass to create a different cut of steak, which they're calling the Vegas Strip Steak. Not regularly reading about meat cuts, I have to admit that the article is somewhat amusing, concerning the vast enthusiasm about a different way to chop up a dead cow:“Initially, the cut was labeled as undervalued,” Mata said. “Whenever we can take a muscle and turn it into a steak rather than grinding it or selling it as a roast, we are adding value to the carcass.”Of course, the actual details of how this particular steak is cut, however, are not revealed. Instead, the report notes that the folks behind it are awaiting a patent. A cursory glance over at the patent office suggests that the application was likely filed less than 18 months ago, as it has not yet been published (applications are only made public after 18 months). Thus, there is still a chance that the patent will be rejected for not being patentable subject matter. However, these days, you never know. All I do know is that it seems fairly ridiculous that the food on my dinner plate might violate a bunch of patents.
In the research and development phase, the Vegas Strip Steak was compared against the New York Strip, Petite Filet and Flat Iron Steak.
“This muscle produces a steak that is on par with or better than today’s most popular steaks,” Mata said.
Vegas Strip Steak attributes of tenderness, flavor and appearance appeal to consumers.
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Filed Under: beef, steak, vegas strip steak
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If there was every ANY question that patents are getting silly the idea that processing a dead animal that we've successfully been cutting up for, lets be generous, that period of time since we discovered fire needs a special protection should be a big freaking blinking light.
Shall we examine the possible prior art where some meatcutter somewhere in the history of the world did this once before? To suggest that no one ever had this amazing idea of cutting a cow up this way ever before in the past 2000 years (give or take), and that there needs to be special protections put in place for the method...
Or is this just a fun way to try and make sure that the profit from carving up cows stays high. I mean there might be a glut of beef on the market thanks to industrial farming so creating a "new" cut of meat so you can get a cut of another guys business of cutting meat...
I can see it now, the DCAA.... Dead Cow Association of America sending ICE swat teams in to check for infringing cuts. Massive lawsuits and lots of rich lawyers...
Its a f*cking cut of MEAT, not a turducken bred in real life.
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Oh absolutely. We can send turds into the patent office as evidence of prior art.
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I'd multiply that number by at least 10 since we figured out fire then started to hunt and cook the animal that became the domestic cow over a fire. Or maybe until we figured out how to BBQ, one of the oldest cooking methods there is.
But really, patenting the methods needed to come up with a cut of meat (fish, toadstool or whatever) is taking the "patent everything" attitude of today just a bit too far, don't you think?
Of course, there was a time when I thought you couldn't patent mathematical expressions or equations which is what software really is but apparently some court figured that if we just call it software Ohms Law isn't math any more it's Windows. Remember that. Next time you try to figure out the resistance of a DC circuit you're probably breaking someone's patent, somewhere. You don't want Ronald J. Riley on your doorstep in high dungeon about what an evil person you are do you?
We're probably breaking some obscure patent just by breathing these days.
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I used to enjoy reading Techdirt, now I come back daily for a dose of depression.
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Toilets around the country will need to have FRL and SRM (Flatulence Restrictions Management and Shitting Restrictions Management, respectively) installed on all models before anyone could use them anymore. This will make toilets cost much more and me very rich! But it's a small price to pay for this glorious innovation.
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If you think about it's on par with patenting the angles of an electronic device (90� curves, iPad) and using it to prevent your competitor from using the same 90�, curvy angles.
Actually, please stop Earth now, I wanna get down.
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Earth has chocolate!
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RE: Getting off the earth.
Thank you, Darne Obvious (Captain)
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We got Patents on HOW you cut a piece of meat?
what next? Someone Patent their way of making a baby?
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Silly AC, Trix (tm, pat applied for, copyright) are for kids!!!
(Ok, it's lame but it's the best I can do with this ridiculous situation!)
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I cut up my own deer, am I in violation?
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nom nom nom
You eat the patented food
You are what you eat
You have just been patented!
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Has anyone tried to patent a method of cutting the cheese?
Certainly if granted, such a patent could be instrumental in the creation of an entire industry from which great wealth and prosperity would rein.
Hey - Pull my finger.
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I believe that this headline is a simple typo.
"Can you Patent How You Stroke Your Meat, in order to make it more plump and tasty" would make more sense for the patent office.
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Google is far more intelligent. It realized quickly that having a verb coined from its name was like a gift from above in terms of free advertising.
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Can you patent how you beat your meat?
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Escalation
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Obviously, the beef industry is not one of your strong points. Perhaps it would be best to stay away from it until you have learned much more about the industry and industry practices.
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Dammit, this is just a part of a dead cow (or steer) that you can toss in the general direction of the bbq after it's been "fabricated" which sounds more like pink slime than a steak to me.
This one I can't wait to read to see how it will forever change the world as most software patents do without even bothering to come up with something to "fabricate".
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Based on the article Mike concludes that "Of course, the actual details of how this particular steak is cut, however, are not revealed."
If you've been provided with nothing what else are you supposed to conclude other than a big fat pile of nothing?
I presume that the beef industry is one of your strong points, then?
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#31 above makes an accurate observation, which is easily verified by even a cursory glance at the USPTO's Classification Guide. Moreover, thanks to the miracle of Google Patents, it is now posssible for a layman to easily review patents to see if something akin to what the article talks about is even eligible subject matter under our patent laws.
The meat packing industry may seem mundane and trivial to one who deals primarily in the area of "high tech", but it is an industry nevertheless that is a part of our economic eco-system and continually strives to create new products for introduction and sale to the public.
A word used here with great regularity is "innovation", and by all measures promoted here the industry does engage in innovation.
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It sounds like 'providing mediocre quality meat strips for the mass consumers in Las Vegas' may have been enough 'incentive' for someone to figure this out and a patent is totally an attempted money grab after the fact...
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Patently stupid!
Though if you really want to be amused, bamboozled, and shake your head in wonder at the stupidity of humans over the years and what they think is patentable look no further than http://www.patentlysilly.com
My favs so far are:
Post Urination Drip Collector (patent issued)
[Note If any guy seeing this doesn't laugh you are NOT human]
and
Peanut Butter Batter Pancake Mix (patent issued)
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My only question about it is whatever is wrong with the portable organic mouse trap and disposal device we call the domestic cat? At least they purr and snuggle between endless naps from over consumption of mice! And they don't reek of smelly cheeses :)
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Improved restructured meat products are provided which exhibit enhanced texture, tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. The meat products are formed by mixing together brine-treated, essentially gristle free raw meat strips (e.g., beef, poultry, pork or mixtures thereof) in the form of strips and ground beef containing naturally-occurring fat, followed by forming the mixture into steak-like bodies.
Given the other patent one has to wonder if this is a naturally occurring cut that was missed previously or if it is meat glued together pieces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglutaminase
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http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/patents.shtml
cool thought huh, just by procreating, you may be infringing on a patent
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On the other hand, privacy. This is not an area where "open source" is my preferred solution, at least not with identifying information attached.
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Re: "Currently over three million genome-related patent applications have been filed."
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Whether or not it passes obviousness under 35 U.S.C 103 however is another matter.
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another biased article
Commonly you misread and mischaracterize what a patent covers. More often than not their coverage is far more limited and specific than you make them out to be. As always, the only thing you know about patents is you don't have any.
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Ronald J. Riley just hates it when due process is enforced.
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