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On Crichton

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

A person recently commented on an earlier IPBiz post about Crichton's op-ed in the NYT: "This Essay Breaks the Law,"
March 19, 2006, that Crichton had died, and included a link.

Within the link was text: In his fictional worlds, human greed, hubris and the urge to dominate were just as powerful as the most advanced computers.

That applies to "Jurassic Park," with the memorable scene of the "bad lawyer" getting chomped while hiding in the port-a-potty.

Crichton's fictional depictions would not apply to the story of Chester Carlson and the invention of xerography, and his IP depiction in "This Essay Breaks the Law" was way off the mark. The link also noted: Reviewers often complained that Crichton's characters were wooden, that his ear for dialogue was tin and that his science was suspect. His understanding of IP issues was suspect, but it was his essay, not comments thereon, which was published in the New York Times, and which was frequently quoted.

Furthermore, the link noted: [Crichton's father] was the editor of Advertising Age and later president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

See also

More on the Crichton op-ed concerning Metabolite

***Relevant to Metabolite-->

Patently-O has a post on applying the holding of Bilski to the facts of the Metabolite case:

Applying Bilski to Metabolite?s Diagnosis Claim: Under Abele, both homocysteine level and vitamin deficiency do represent physical substances ? consequently their 'creation' may be "sufficient to render that ? process patent-eligible."

Recall that Mark Lemley was on the side of the patentee in Metabolite, and thus on the opposite side from Crichton.

Full post as published by IPBiz on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).