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April 1, 2013 by Travis Jonker

BREAKING: Man Recieves Patent on ‘Picture Book’

April 1, 2013 by Travis Jonker   9 comments

This is unbelievable. And sad.

via ChildLitZoom

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Patent trolling, the much maligned practice of aggressively enforcing a patent with no intention of manufacturing a product, has popped up in the most unexpected of places – children’s literature.

In a case that is sure to be controversial, James L. Schmiddy, an Alaskan lawyer, has been granted a patent on the concept of the picture book. Schmiddy intends to enforce the patent, with wide-ranging negative consequences. Children’s publishers would be forced to pay crushing licensing fees in order to publish a picture book,

When questioned about the case, Schmiddy was open about his opportunistic intentions. “Honestly, I was surprised no one had ever though of doing this before.”

To avoid licensing fees, books will be required to modify their titles to reflect Schmiddy’s ownership of the picture book concept. Following the guidelines set forth, Schmiddy’s name must be included on all picture books published. For example, Where the Wild Things Are would be retitled:

James L. Schmiddy Presents Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are: A Schmiddy Picture Books Inc. Picture Book

Schmiddy Inc. released an exclusive mockup of what such a cover would look like:

Click here for more details and in this quickly evolving story.

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About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. C Atkinson says

    April 1, 2013 at 12:23 am

    … it’s also foolish.

  2. Author Aileen Stewart says

    April 1, 2013 at 7:44 am

    That was a good one. You had me going there for a moment :0)

  3. Melanie Hope Greenberg says

    April 1, 2013 at 8:15 am

    April Fools!

  4. Philip Nel says

    April 1, 2013 at 8:18 am

    Ah, the fooling of April.

  5. Julie says

    April 1, 2013 at 9:08 am

    How long have you been working on that one? You had me SO worked up! I am too gullible.

  6. Charise Harper says

    April 1, 2013 at 11:08 am

    HA! I like a good story.:)

  7. PragmaticMom says

    April 1, 2013 at 1:51 pm

    You are funny!

  8. Sondy says

    April 1, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    Love it! For the record, I was NOT fooled, but was smiling with enjoyment the whole time.

  9. Bonnie Cribbs says

    April 2, 2013 at 6:20 pm

    Being April 2nd, I read the article thinking “how obscene is this???” but could honestly see someone being this greedy. I just couldn’t see how this could ever be legal. I chuckled as I looked at the date this was posted, and immediately knew it had to be an April fools joke. Good one for sure!

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