[MUD-Dev] patents and muds

[Sellers]

Bruce Mitchener wrote:
> I hesitate to bring this up here, but with the constant issuing of patents
> on basic things, it might be interesting to consider what might happen
when
> large companies start patenting mechanisms that they use in systems like
> Ultima Online, EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Middle Earth Online, and so on.
> 
> Doing some searches on http://www.patents.ibm.com/ can turn up interesting
> things, like: http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05899810__
> 
> Can this list help to serve as an archive of prior art?  Has anyone run
into
> problems of this nature yet?

Another highly questionable patent I think.  There should be loads of prior
art on this going all the way back to the early Xerox systems, to say
nothing of the many military systems employing just such a system.  Of
course, only a court defense will be definitive, if it ever actually
happens.  

But: I would not be surprised to see examples of bona fide advances in
MMPOGs start to appear in patents. 

Mike Sellers



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