RE: [MUD-Dev] patents and muds

["Joe Andrieu" <joe#andrieu,net>]

Richard Bartle writes:
--
        I guess this means you haven't heard about the Sitrick patent,
US patent number 4,572,509, awarded 25th February 1986? Here's Sitrick's
abstract:

[snip]

Sitrick (who is himself now a patent lawyer, I understand) asserts this
patent in the case of online games. Many companies pay him licence fees, but
at least one has decided that he can't be allowed to get away with it.
It is likely to cost them several million dollars in lawyers' fees to break
it.
        US patent lawyers inform me that any "prior art" which might affect
the patent's validity must have existed prior to one year before the patent
application was received. In the case of the Sitrick patent, this is
something like September 1981. Furthermore, proof of existence is only
valid for existence in the USA; for existence in the rest of the world,
actual publication is required.

[snip]
---

However, there were online games by that time.  By my recollection, the first multi-user implementation of Adventure was in 1979, I think.

Of course, that may not clear all the claims based on Sitrick's patent. In any case, it can be a serious matter what is already patented.  My own research indicates that at least as far as the areas I am interested in, there are some that are relatively free of relevant patents (like non-linear storytelling--most are multi-linear pick-a-path movies and their variations), but there are significant academic works which could preclude patenting most work in this area.

If you are concerned your ideas may be patented, check the IBM patent database or the USPTO's web site. Both have searchable databases.  And hunt down academic papers and document actual products to be clear about what is "prior art" and would therefore show that your innovations are not precluded by anyone else's patents.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. But I have looked at patenting some of my own ideas.

If you are really concerned, you could also check out Pressman's _Patent It Yourself_, which would explain how you can use the system to protect your own inventions.


-j





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