Old short story about patent system gone amok

[migstradamus]

Researching for a book project. As described to me, an old (1930-1950?) short story about a man from Earth who goes to another planet. On this planet, the patent system has been taken to ridiculous extremes, with all but the most common words, facial expressions, even feelings and actions, having been patented. E.g. you have to pay a license fee to tell someone you like them, or find an entirely novel way to express it.

So, Earth man meets woman, realizes nature expresses his feelings and takes her to the countryside so the birds and beauty of the surroundings can demonstrate his affection without patents. The ha-ha conclusion is that her reaction is "we can patent all this and be rich!"

Or something like that, interviewee wasn't 100% on the details. I've found various stories about patents, including Clarke's "Patent Pending" and Darlington's "Patent Rights." Also found a sci-fi comic with a very short tale called "The Patent Planet". None follow the described plot.

Thanks for any help.

Saludos, Mig

 

[gully_foyle]

Cool, working in an environment where every second acronym is IP I am looking forward to the answer to this one.