David Copperfield's Only Magic Patent

People usually patent things to prevent others from stealing their hard work. The biggest magic names spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new magic. Their tricks are crucial revenue-generating assets. Each illusion must break even and hopefully continue to generate profits. It makes sense to protect such a significant financial investment.

But there are other equally fascinating reasons to patent a trick. It might simply be a vanity project. Perhaps you want the world to know it’s your original invention. Patents are documented forever in the public domain. Maybe you intend to license your trick to other industries. Theme parks and top companies will only pay the actual inventor.

I own a magic trick patent. The process was lengthy, expensive, and rather fascinating. For me, it was worthwhile in many ways, and the patent paid for itself over time.

Overall, patents are expensive and difficult to acquire. You need to be able to prove you really are the inventor (not as easy as it sounds). There’s lots of legal nonsense, and the rules differ by country. You may spend tens of thousands of dollars and never be granted the patent. Patents are great deterrents, but they don’t always provide the right protection in a legal battle.

Also, every patent must be publicly listed for the world to see.

The public part is not ideal for magicians, but you can be creative about naming the invention and who you list as its inventor. Patent attorneys might suggest listing someone you trust as the inventor instead of yourself. This makes the patent more challenging for the press, public, and magic rivals to search for and find. Famous magicians often follow this tactic and name their inventions with terminology people seeking them out might not instinctively search for.

I believe magicians must learn the many ways to protect magic. It’ll inspire more people to put in the time to create brilliant new magic, and I hope it might deter people from ripping each other off, too. Mostly, I'm just fed up with seeing magicians in Facebook groups ranting about how it’s impossible to patent a trick.

Spoiler alert – you can patent a magic trick.

The hard bit is deciding what you can do with the patent after you get it.

So why on earth has David Copperfield patented an illusion under his name? Why did he choose to patent it at all? And why this illusion and only this illusion?

"System and method for creating an illusion."

Copperfield only has one patent publicly registered to his name. The application was submitted at the start of 2014 and granted just three months later — which is quite fast. Copperfield’s team knew what they were doing and even skipped the optional patent-pending application. Let's first look at how they describe the illusion:

Abstract Description

Field Of Invention

Background

Summary

Let’s break this down a little more. The only Patent Copperfield holds is for a photo op, usually placed in or around a casino. The above image is what the person at the location sees. They step onto a static rig in front of an image of Copperfield at a horizontal angle. Below is the photo they end up with if they take the shot with the camera aligning with the printed magician.

You may have seen this kind of photo op before. In fact, Henri White showed me a photo of an identical set-up Paul Daniels used in the lobby of his shows.

It appears what makes Copperfield’s version unique is the levitation stand the person steps on. It makes the illusion 10x stronger than if they were standing on the ground, which is why you’ll see this rig element is noted clearly in the patent.

Everything I’ve quoted so far from the patent was designed to provide context to the body approving the application and, later, to the public viewing the patent information online. It will also serve in any future legal battles and letters that reference the patent.

These sections are usually quite performative and explanatory.

What’s absolutely crucial in a patent are the claims. Claims define, in technical terms, the scope of protection from a patent. The claims define which subject matter is protected. This is termed the “notice function” of a patent to warn others what they must not do if they are trying to avoid infringement liability. The claims are the most significant bit when it comes to prosecution and litigation.

Copperfield has 16 claims to his patent, and 13 rely directly on just three of the main claims. Those three:

My thoughts

I won’t usually share the method described in a patent, but I feel at ease on this occasion because the actual illusion is already openly exposed. I’ve seen people post their photos of the illusion on social media. That’s the sole purpose of this illusion. It’s a photo op — taking a photograph of said person standing on said support in front of said image of said person.

When I first discovered Copperfield only holds one magic trick patent, I was fascinated to learn which of his illusions he had chosen to protect. When it turned out to be the trick that literally everyone who sees it knows the secret, I was surprised.

Maybe he felt comfortable patenting and listing the method publicly because the trick's method is already openly exposed to anyone who sees it live. Then I realised it might actually be the opposite. Perhaps the fact the illusion’s secret is publicly exposed didn’t make Copperfield feel comfortable at all…

With the method openly exposed, the asset becomes more vulnerable to copying. With photos all over the internet and every visitor learning exactly how the trick is done, the chances someone might build their own version increase exponentially. And, of course, he’ll want to protect this — it’s brilliant on every level, both in terms of deceptiveness and how powerful and engaging it is as a photo op.

Copperfield’s one and only magic patent protects his one and only trick that everyone already knows the secret to. If anything, it’s a testament to how strong and impossible to replicate his other illusions are and how well his team can keep a secret.