[sldev] [INFO] [PATENTS] Information requested on LL's patent portfolio

[Kamilion]

Howdy folks. I was reading the SLEX forums the other day when I ran
into a posting about other metaverses. Anyway, Worlds was a VRML based
metaverse from the 90s, and it looks like they've done a rewrite to
attempt to bring it to SL-standards.

Now, here's the problem as I see it, I was surfing their pages, when I
ran across this:

http://www.worlds.com/patents.html
----
TECHNOLOGY AND PATENTS

Worlds technology is a highly productive and easy-to-use integrated
client/server technology suite that provides a development platform to
create, distribute, maintain and use multi-user virtual environments
of exceptional quality and performance over the Internet or private
TCP/IP networks. Worlds Gamma's integration of a user's 2D Web browser
(e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer or FireFox) into its own application
gives Gamma the ability to deliver HTML, audio and video content all
within the 3D Worlds Website.  Thus, any popular features that are
seen in 2D Websites can be easily integrated into Worlds.

Patent
Worlds has been granted U.S patent 6,219,045 for multi-server
technology for 3D applications, which is Worlds' core technology.  The
description of the patent is as follows:

"The present invention provides a highly scalable architecture for a
three dimensional, multi-user, interactive virtual world system.  In a
preferred embodiment a plurality of users interact in the
three-dimensional, computer-generated graphical space where each user
executes a client process to view a virtual world from the perspective
of that user.  The virtual world shows Avatars representing the other
users who are neighbors of the user viewing the virtual world.  In
order that the view can be updated to reflect the motion of the remote
user's Avatar, motion information is transmitted to a central server
process that provides position updates to client processes for
neighbors of the user at that client process.  The client process also
users an environment database to determine which background objects to
render as well as to limit the number of displayable Avatars to a
maximum number of Avatars displayable by that client."
----

This seems to represent SL's system as well, but their patent was
filed for in '96 and granted in april of 2001 -- Before SL even went
into beta.

Here's the patent filing:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,219,045.PN.&OS=PN/6,219,045&RS=PN/6,219,045


So, does this patent cover anything to do with SL? IANAL.
Does LL hold any patents? If so, what patent numbers?
Will this patent stop us from implementing Browser-on-a-primface?

This is yet another reason why software patents are a baaaaad idea imho.