Kevin Spacey Awarded U.S. Patent

Kevin Spacey, winner of two Academy Awards, now has a new accomplishment to add to his list of lifetime achievements: patent recipient.

The star of Netflix’s popular “House of Cards” political drama was awarded U.S. Patent Number 9,306,887, along with his co-inventor and his producing partner Dana Brunetti, for what they titled “Systems and methods for implementing email delivery.” Spacey explained that the idea came to him after multiple instances when someone would CC’d him rather than BCC him in an email chain.  This resulted in all recipients being aware of the star’s email address and would force the actor to constantly have to create and migrate to new email addresses to prevent him from being deluged with project pitches and stalker emails. “With this system, he could put his email address on the side of a building and still get emails only from people he wanted,” Brunetti told Variety, which was the first to report on the patent award. “I also have my own frustration of people I don’t know easily contacting me at any time. Everyone has their phones attached to them now, and I feel it is intrusive for anyone to be able to get a message freely to anyone at any time as long as they have their address.” Calling it akin to a “digital doorman at a velvet rope,” the patented email system sends unapproved email senders a note that they are not on the recipient’s approved list.  Newly approved senders have to input a PIN before correspondence can take place while those who have already been emailed by the recipient are automatically added to the list of approved senders, Brunetti told the trade publication. The patent application was filed in March 2013 and published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 5, according to agency records.  Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti are credited as both the inventors and the assignees of the patent. Brunetti also said the invention has business applications, but the pair have yet to take the next step in development. “Now we just need to get it built,” Brunetti said Sunday via Twitter.