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You may remember Erik von Markovik from VH1's 2007 show The Pick Up Artist. Or, you may know him from Neil Strauss' book The Game. Markovik, who goes by the name “Mystery,” is a pick-up artist who helps the socially inept get beautiful women into bed.
The amount of e-mail I have received about this man over the years has no parallel in my inbox, yet I've never written about him -- until now. This morning, as I nursed a sex hangover with caffeine and cigarettes, a subject in my inbox immediately caught my eye: "Dating is patented?"
I followed the link to find Markovik's patent application for "Interpersonal Pursuit Method," which detailed, in pseudo legalese, the basics of dating: attract, build comfort, seduce.
Curious about the veracity of the potential patent, I immediately contacted Mark R. Matthews, visiting professor of law at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
"Any process or system can be patented," Matthews told me. "Normally this is an invention you put together, which you see is unique. The idea of patenting dating -- or seduction -- if he has a unique methodology, it's potentially patentable. Could he enforce it when someone develops their own method if it's a derivative of his process? He's welcome to see whether that's going to work. But his idea and method he could certainly patent. I'm not positive whether the patent has been granted – this looks like an application. But if you have a particular method of doing something, this is the way to protect it. It could be anything – social media usage, collecting information – you just have to detail the method and submit it."
THE METHOD
From an emotional perspective, the woman places her survival in greater danger by having sex. Evolutionary [sic] speaking, if a man impregnates her, she is dependent upon her emotional pair bond with him to protect her and provide for her during this vulnerable time. If he does not have a pair bond with her, he is likely to move on and she will not have access to his resources. In addition, her reputation for promiscuity will lower her status within her social network, further jeopardizing her survival and replication prospects. Men, by contrast, generally face no such physical or social repercussions for engaging in sex. Sex therefore represents a much greater risk to a woman than it does a man.
As a consequence of these biological factors, women are generally considerably choosier than men, and it is also much more important to a woman that an emotional pair bond exists before she will engage in sex ... It generally takes an average of four to ten cumulative hours of comfort building before a female is ready for seduction. A period of approximately seven hours is preferred.
By this method, called the "Venusian Method" (because no discussion of men and women is complete without a hat tip to John Gray), a man is to approach a group of women (called a "set") and select the woman he desires ("target"). Markovik details how to "open" a "set" without appearing to be involved in predatory behavior, by never facing them directly with his body and using casual but interesting canned conversation.
He details "shielding strategies" that women use to protect from unwanted male attention -- wearing a ring, saying one has a boyfriend, surrounding herself with friends, being rude, issuing insults, exhibiting negative body language, etc. -- and stresses the importance of overcoming the woman's "protective shield" to achieve the end result (sleeping with her). His methods for this include appearing disinterested (to assure her that he isn't seeking to seduce her), and making negative remarks (which Markovik lovingly refers to as "negs"). Examples of a
