Legal Question in Business Law in Massachusetts

pet rock

Hopefully a very simple question:

I've used various sites to find out if the Pet Rock ever received a patent or if it was copywrited but have come up dry.

Since you are ''in the business'', might I get a yes or no? Maybe the patent number?

What attempts were made to ''protect'' the idea?

I hope this is not too much trouble and certainly don't want anymore of your time spent on this than the time to type in a quick response.

Thanking you in advance for your time and effort, I am

Very truly yours,

--name removed--A.--name removed--

Dracut, Ma.


Asked on 7/12/02, 7:48 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: pet rock

This would not have been patentable subject matter. And, from the link below, it appears that the inventor failed to secure any intellectual property protection to prevent imitators: see

http://www.virtualpet.com/vp/farm/petrock/petrock.htm

for a history of the item. Nowadays, it would be protectable by (1) name, as a trademark; (2) product configuration; and (3) possibly a three-dimensional copyright. Certainly the ad copy would be protected by copyright. But times were looser in the 70s!

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 7/12/02, 8:13 am


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