Knowing what kind of IP to obtain is crucial to protecting and profiting from ideas. Last week, I watched the extremely enjoyable film Silly Little Game part of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series. The film details the beginning of the modern fantasy league, now a $4 billion industry. In the 1980s, a group of writers and academics met at La Rotisserie Francaise in New York City to form a fantasy baseball league called The Rotisserie League.
About 40 minutes into the film, the original creators of Rotisserie League lament that they never shared in the great financial success that fantasy sports has become. It seems their focus was on the name Rotisserie League and not the idea behind it. They sent many "cease and desist" letters to others who were using the Rotisserie League name but the copycats eventually figured out that all they had to do was call their version "fantasy" baseball. While hindsight is 20:20, in my view the creators would have been much better off trying to obtain a patent on their idea. This would have given them the right to try to prevent others from using the fantasy sports idea no matter what it was called--a much more profitable right under the circumstances.
About 40 minutes into the film, the original creators of Rotisserie League lament that they never shared in the great financial success that fantasy sports has become. It seems their focus was on the name Rotisserie League and not the idea behind it. They sent many "cease and desist" letters to others who were using the Rotisserie League name but the copycats eventually figured out that all they had to do was call their version "fantasy" baseball. While hindsight is 20:20, in my view the creators would have been much better off trying to obtain a patent on their idea. This would have given them the right to try to prevent others from using the fantasy sports idea no matter what it was called--a much more profitable right under the circumstances.
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