'400 Patent -- Latest News and a Milestone
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Scott Witte
Nov 14, 2011, 2:31:40 AM11/14/11
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Friends,
We have reached a major milestone in our efforts to get rid of the '400 patent. All the legal work is done for the reexamination request to the US Patent Office. What we still need to wrap this up is money, about $5000 worth.
A couple points I think people will find interesting:
As we all know, the examiners did a very poor job finding prior art, so they allowed everything! Just think about how all encompassing and powerful that makes the patent look. Makes no difference how valid it actually is.
Our lawyer says that normally when requesting a patent reexamination the requester has one or two pieces of prior art often questioning only some of the claims. By contrast we have 23 examples. IPix Builder by itself covers essentially every claim. Every claim can be challenged by multiple examples of prior art. The upshot is that we have an extraordinarily strong case for reexamination.
All we need is that final $5,000.
Why should you care? Ice Portal is the perfect example ( http://ivrpa.org/node/3802 ). There is nothing unique about them.
It costs TTS $350 to file a suit against anyone. Because the lawyer seems to be a director of the company they incur no outside legal costs. Meanwhile, the company sued can't just ignore it. If they do they get an automatic judgement against them. They have little choice but to hire a patent law firm in New York, have them examine the suit and prepare an answer for why they feel the case should be dismissed (best case scenario). That isn't even taking it to trial. Just to get in front of the judge to ask for dismissal will cost $7,000 to $10,000, as Ice Portal has found out. To fight in court will cost $30,000 to $50,000. And that is just to fight about whether they are infringing on the patent, a very broad patent, with no assurance of winning. It makes no difference how bogus it may be, validity of the patent is another issue entirely. The thing is, even if they take the case to completion and win, they are still out all that money with essentially no ability to recover it. (And if they loose they are out far more.) Meanwhile TTS is free to go after the next target, regardless. They see no downside to doing so.
Obviously few companies can afford to do all that, much less suffer the business interruption and anguish. TTS says, "Hey. We don't like it either. How about we come to a much nicer settlement, say just $20,000 and we walk away."
That is what more and more companies can expect to experience. TTS has promised to do just that. And they will, unless we stop them now.
We are close. If 50 VR shooters committed $100 dollars each or 100 donated $50 each, we would be set. If a few larger companies similar to Ice Portal committed $1000 - $2,000 we would be there. At any level it is SO much cheaper than the alternative, which will be so obvious when a court process server delivers the notice of suit to their doors.
I know you have heard it before, but if you make a living shooting virtual tours, especially in the US, and especially if you haven't donated already, please donate now to help ensure your economic future.
You can donate and learn more here: http://ivrpa.org/patent
Thanks for your consideration.
Scott Witte
IVRPA Board Member
Head of the VR Patent Committee
We have reached a major milestone in our efforts to get rid of the '400 patent. All the legal work is done for the reexamination request to the US Patent Office. What we still need to wrap this up is money, about $5000 worth.
A couple points I think people will find interesting:
The Examiner’s reason for allowance was that “[t]he closest prior art of record failed to teach or suggest, assembling the images in a digital format to create a complete spherical image surrounding the origin point, projecting the spherical image onto faces of a cube surrounding the spherical image, and storing images projected on the faces of the cube to provides an omni-direction image, and in combination with all the other limitations in the claims, that claims 1-40 allowable.”
As we all know, the examiners did a very poor job finding prior art, so they allowed everything! Just think about how all encompassing and powerful that makes the patent look. Makes no difference how valid it actually is.
Our lawyer says that normally when requesting a patent reexamination the requester has one or two pieces of prior art often questioning only some of the claims. By contrast we have 23 examples. IPix Builder by itself covers essentially every claim. Every claim can be challenged by multiple examples of prior art. The upshot is that we have an extraordinarily strong case for reexamination.
All we need is that final $5,000.
Why should you care? Ice Portal is the perfect example ( http://ivrpa.org/node/3802 ). There is nothing unique about them.
It costs TTS $350 to file a suit against anyone. Because the lawyer seems to be a director of the company they incur no outside legal costs. Meanwhile, the company sued can't just ignore it. If they do they get an automatic judgement against them. They have little choice but to hire a patent law firm in New York, have them examine the suit and prepare an answer for why they feel the case should be dismissed (best case scenario). That isn't even taking it to trial. Just to get in front of the judge to ask for dismissal will cost $7,000 to $10,000, as Ice Portal has found out. To fight in court will cost $30,000 to $50,000. And that is just to fight about whether they are infringing on the patent, a very broad patent, with no assurance of winning. It makes no difference how bogus it may be, validity of the patent is another issue entirely. The thing is, even if they take the case to completion and win, they are still out all that money with essentially no ability to recover it. (And if they loose they are out far more.) Meanwhile TTS is free to go after the next target, regardless. They see no downside to doing so.
Obviously few companies can afford to do all that, much less suffer the business interruption and anguish. TTS says, "Hey. We don't like it either. How about we come to a much nicer settlement, say just $20,000 and we walk away."
That is what more and more companies can expect to experience. TTS has promised to do just that. And they will, unless we stop them now.
We are close. If 50 VR shooters committed $100 dollars each or 100 donated $50 each, we would be set. If a few larger companies similar to Ice Portal committed $1000 - $2,000 we would be there. At any level it is SO much cheaper than the alternative, which will be so obvious when a court process server delivers the notice of suit to their doors.
I know you have heard it before, but if you make a living shooting virtual tours, especially in the US, and especially if you haven't donated already, please donate now to help ensure your economic future.
You can donate and learn more here: http://ivrpa.org/patent
Thanks for your consideration.
Scott Witte
IVRPA Board Member
Head of the VR Patent Committee
Hans
Nov 14, 2011, 1:02:26 PM11/14/11
to iv...@googlegroups.com
Dear Scott…
thanks for any updates in this case ….
please allow one question … there should be some money already collected …. will you give
any info on this and do you stay calm due to the fact that ‘enemies’ may read this ?
best
Hans
Scott Witte
Nov 14, 2011, 2:46:36 PM11/14/11
to iv...@googlegroups.com
Hans,
$20,000 total was needed, we have collected $15,000 so far so we are in the final stretch.
As for staying calm, it has been tough at times, but mostly because I've become so well acquainted with the patent and various prior art and this whole situation seems more and more outrageous by the day. At the same time, what we are accomplishing is... monumental really. That should make us all proud.
Scott
$20,000 total was needed, we have collected $15,000 so far so we are in the final stretch.
As for staying calm, it has been tough at times, but mostly because I've become so well acquainted with the patent and various prior art and this whole situation seems more and more outrageous by the day. At the same time, what we are accomplishing is... monumental really. That should make us all proud.
Scott
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