The mystique of magic depends on hiding the technique of the original trick, and no legal steps the secrets behind the tricks. Since the be- can be taken to keep it secret. ginning of modern stage magic, organizations On the other hand, if the aforementioned bullet-such as the Society of American Magicians and the catching routine relied on a special mechanism to International Brotherhood of Magicians have enforced perform the trick, a patent could be issued. Inventions codes of ethics and oaths of secrecy, to prevent the such as levitation harnesses, magic hats, or anything willful exposure of secrets to the public and, maybe that constitutes a “conjuring device” are eligible even more importantly, to recognize and respect the for patents, and can be successfully protected. But ownership rights of magic effects inventors. then, of course, the patented invention is no longer Unfortunately, some knaves will break these a secret, and a clever person will be able to create codes in order to steal a particularly astonishing an effect just different enough to fall outside the effect. This means magicians must resort to copy- claims of the patent. rights and patents to protect their inventions. The tradeoff between protecting an effect and Copyrighting a magic trick can protect the holder, revealing the secret behind it wasn’t too bad until the but only so far. For instance, say an illusionist had web began linking to patent databases. But today, a big dance number that involves a new bullet- the gimmicks behind countless tricks are available at catching technique. The entire routine could be your fingertips. For some examples of secrets behind copyrighted and no other magician could legally well-known tricks, go to google.com/patents and reproduce the act. But copyrighting doesn’t protect search for the patent numbers provided here.

Saw a Person in Half This 1923 patent by Horace Goldin was the first for sawing a woman in half, and although it was not the last, it did a lot for boosting this trick’s exposure. (no. 1458575)

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