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Microsoft Patents Interactive Entertainment

Posted by timothy on from the getcher-patents-get-'em-while-they're-hot dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Embedded-Watch is carrying a story regarding the award of patent number 6,571,390 to Microsoft. The patent would seem to cover pretty much any implementation of a video-on-demand system that you (or at least I) can think of. Read for yourself to decide whether this patent either is not original work or is blatantly obvious to the most casual observer. The patent could certainly be invalidated by the courts on either point, but that'd take a fight in court that won't be cheap."

4 of 466 comments (clear)

  1. WRONG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    the patentable feature in this patent is not VOD. check out class 725/87 for a number of VOD systems.

    Read claim 1, the patentable feature is dealing with scroll rates and adding/removingfor a number of listings in a VOD environment. This is not a patent for VOD itself there are several hundred existing patents for that.

    VOD by the way is streaming to a user on demmand imediatly after a program is selected, this is not a patent for just that function rather it builds on it to deal with entries/scrolling.

  2. Did anybody RTFA?! by shroudedmoon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The patent isn't for Video on demand, in fact they stipulate the fact that vide on demand is common. The patent is for their system of categorizing and selecting items. I know it's fun to bash MS off the cuff, but cmon...

  3. Re:It's been done before... by BillyJoJimBob · · Score: 5, Informative
    If you bother to actually read the patent, I have not come across any examples of prior art. Not that prior art may not exist, but I've never seen or heard of it.

    The patent is for the storage of your preferences and selections from a database of available digital and/or broadband content, which you may or may not decide to order at some point. If/when you do order the content is delivered on-demand. The point being that subsequent "visits" do not require you to start from scratch indicating what types of content you want to browse/select from, and previously marked items of interest are immediately available to order without the user having to "search" for them again.

    --
    _-=^=-_-=^=-_-=^=-_ Can you imagine a world without hypothetical situations?
  4. Has anyone read the patent yet? by angle_slam · · Score: 5, Informative
    People here are apopleptic because Microsoft patented video on demand. But look at the claims. They are patenting a program guide with an adjustable scroll rate. That's it. The parent patent is a lot more broad, but has been out there since 1999. Has MS tried to assert it?

    Here are the claims to the patent:

    1. A user interface unit for use in an individual home, the user interface unit being connected to an interactive entertainment network system having a content provider, the content provider providing video content programs to the user interface unit, the user interface unit comprising:

    a processor;

    a user interface which executes on the processor to display at least one list of entries pertaining to the video content programs;

    the processor causing the list to visually scroll at a selected rate while being displayed whereby one entry is removed as another entry is added;

    the user interface enabling a viewer to adjust the selected rate according to personal preference; and

    the processor being programmable, in response to the viewer's inputs to adjust the selected rate at which the list is scrolled.

    2. A method for operating a user interface used in interactive entertainment network system, the interactive entertainment network system having a content provider which is connected to provide video content programs to a plurality of user interface units in individual homes, the user interface being executed on a processor provided at each user interface unit, the method comprising the following steps:

    generating a list of entries pertaining to the video content programs;

    displaying a number of entries on the list;

    scrolling through the list by continually updating the displayed entries, whereby one entry on the list is removed as another entry on the list is added; and

    enabling a viewer to adjust a rate at which entries are removed and added to thereby modify a rate at which the list visually appears to be scrolling.

    3. In an interactive entertainment network system having a content provider that is connected to provide video content programs to a plurality of user interface units in individual homes, a computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions for performing the steps comprising:

    generating a list of entries pertaining to the video content programs;

    displaying a number of entries on the list;

    scrolling through the list by continually updating the displayed entries, whereby one entry on the list is removed as another entry on the list is added; and

    enabling a viewer to adjust a rate at which entries are removed and added to thereby modify a rate at which the list visually appears to be scrolling.