"vegas strip" steak, an all new cut of meat ....

[jgg13]

http://gizmodo.com/5910505/steak-specialists-discover-a-new-cut-of-beef
http://vegasstripsteak.com/site/

Saw this referenced on gizmodo earlier today. WTF?

The best part is that they've patented it. This screams "joke" or "scam" to me.

[jgg13]

Every time I see this come up somewhere I keep being reminded of the line from the Simpsons ... "think smaller, with more legs"

[LindaWhit]

Re: screaming joke or scam - it's marketing, at its worst:

The Vegas Strip Steak™ is often compared to the New York Strip Steak. But there can only be one New York Strip Steak. So what city should this steak honor?

Vegas, of course! It’s a great restaurant town that has earned its culinary reputation more recently. Vegas is a crowd-pleaser and so is this steak! The name has everything necessary to drive commercial success:

Has Personality
Evokes Imagery
Is Relatable
Is Memorable
is FUN!

[paulj]

What's the difference between a New York Strip and Kansas City Strip? Why 'New York'?

[LindaWhit]

There doesn't seem to be any difference between a NY and KC strip steak, according to several websites. I'm sure a KC Steak distributor sales pitch would say they have a slightly different cut, but it seems to be just the regional name for a NY strip.

Mellie's response (copied by someone else) seems to corroborate that it's the same cut: http://www.1branson.com/forum/t42589....

[paulj]

Most likely the patent covers a method of production, ' the cutting technique and location of the "steak" '. Manufacturing method and business method patents are quite common.

If you as an individual buy a chuck, and cut out this particular muscle no one is going to stop you. But Hormel or some other large meat packer, tries to produce and market this cut, then the patent holder's lawyers will try to make some sort of licensing arrangement.

[cacruden]

The patent system is broken. You can pretty well patent anything now. It has been turned from a system to encourage investment, to a system whose primary purpose is to prevent competition from new entities. The original intent of the patent law was NOT to patent business methods.

[paulj]

The first US patent
http://www.patentstation.com/mdm/firstpatent.htm
Method of producing pot ash and pearl ash

I can imagine the 'steak patent' being titled:
"Method of cutting a unique steak from the chuck..."

The OK patent will have to cite patents like this
http://bks6.books.google.com.uy/paten...
and show that it is different in some way.
"Method of cutting beef chuck roll and beef products produced by the method"

[cacruden]

The first patent is not a business method but a manufacturing method -- a transformative process (machine transformation). Now if it was a process of taking ground beef and somehow making it into a steak (not hamburger) - they might have something :p

Business method patents only started showing up late last century.

[paulj]

Your focus on 'business methods' is a tangent.

Method patents do not have a complexity or degree transformation requirement. I forget the exact wording, but the issues like novelty, obviousness, and comparison with current and past practice are the relevant ones.

[cacruden]

It is the "Beaujolais nouveau" of steaks.... we created it (the marketing hype) to make extra money.... not because it is better.

[Kagemusha]

Not dissimilar to the new "species" of fish that marketers dream up.

[hotoynoodle]

show me on the cow map where this comes from? lol. cows are still cows. they haven't grown a new muscle.

http://monipakistani.blogspot.com/201...

[jgg13]

Heh. Not that I'm buying any of this, but I'm assuming that what they've done is cut a muscle in a different way than typical.

The defenders of these people are claiming that it comes from a zone that has long since been automatically designated for grinding, and that w/ the diet of modern cows these people discovered that this hunk of meamt is actually pretty good. That's malarky.

[wattacetti]

Maybe not - that pretty much sounds like the development of the flatiron steak.

[jgg13]

Flatiron was what I was picturing but I wasn't sure if I had my history correct. Outside of their patenting it, that's reasonable.

The malarky part is the latter statement - some people are claiming that perhaps they actually *did* (re)discover a non-grinding cut on the carcass.

[LindaWhit]

They're claiming that the patent isn't on the meat itself - it's on the *kind* of knife strokes made to create the Vegas strip steak:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/24/s...