It just occurred to me that, under existing copyright law, all spell formulas would be copyrighted. Furthermore, metamagical techniques could be patented. Considering that naturally occurring genes can be patented today, it isn't a stretch of the imagination to say that spirits and elementals are potentially patentable.

academic institutions publish a great volume of magical research and there is probably a large subculture of "open source" magical researchers who freely publish their works. However, I can imagine that most of the formulas the average talismonger sells are licensed from a Megacorp. I also wouldn't be suprised if a large portion of the price of summoning materials actually goes to Megacorps who have patented particular types of elementals.

Is there any cannon indication of what corps or groups own which spells and metamagics or any cannon statement about how magic fits into intelectual property laws?

I don't see how you could make it happen.

Mages can cast spells and conjure things reguardless of that. Plus patenting something you'd probably have plans to market a product or proccess, IIRC, magic isn't mass produced.

formulas can be, to an extent. If you were the first to come up with an extremely interesting spell, perhaps one with some industrial applications however limited, you could have some nice IP on your hands, especially if you happen to be a megacorp.

I think spell formula are covered by Copywrite laws or similar, and I imagine Hermetic Libraries pay royalties to the holders as such. Perhaps that explains the cost ;)

I seriously doubt that (I seem to say that a lot, don't I?). If you'll notice, the world of Shadowrun has taking a massive veering turn away from freedom of information. The free information would be coming mostly from small places who might benefit more from another small place throwing a scrap of info back their way rather than the large ones, whose secrets just draw more magical talent.

~J

i believe they have a few copywrighted spells, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.

however i endorse the "skin cat" formula from magic-co. you can really taste the cat™

There's plenty of prior art relating to spirits though, heh.

Well, summoning is a process and most unique processes can be patented.

Until Watchers, most spirits that normal characters can summon use processes developed before the Awakening, by over a hundred years for most recent ones (Loa).

But, certainly circles and unique methods could be patented (Hermetic Conjuring Library as evidence?). Though I would say almost exclusively Ritual Summoning (like that of Hermetics) would be the applicable process definable enough to be considered patentable.

The opening of MITS answers your question. Basically, while a given spell formula can be copyrighted, the spell itself is an expression of natural law. Someone who "reverse engineers" a spell is free and clear.

Formulas come under intellectual property law. But different formulas that have the same effect are not considered copyright violations.

Basic magical theories could possibly be patented but as magical theories are not like the laws of physics (even hermetics do things very differently among different groups) it wouldn’t do much good.

And la

As Edward has mentioned Spell Formulas can and are patented by developers, hermetic libraries do pay royalties and are licensed out by the companies that make them. Other things that can and are patented are alchemical processes and foci formula, certain metamagic techniques (especially the advanced ones), and a number of conjuring techniques and forms.

However, it is assumed that the licensing fees necessary are covered as part of the formula/library costs when buying these on the market.

However there are indeed many ways to skin a cat and a variant ways of achieving the same result can be patented and licensed. This means spells from different schools and traditions that have the same game effect and mechanics may have entirely different formulas and patents in the game world.

SoE in fact suggests there's as much competition and shadowplay around this industry as there is around tech-oriented R&D, something which will also be addressed in the upcoming SOTA64.