Microsoft Pockets Patent for Encouraging TV Viewing

theodp writes "Through its WebTV unit, Microsoft was awarded a patent Tuesday for a system and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs, such as offering viewers frequent-flier miles for identifying the name of a sponsor or the color of an announcer's shirt. In other news, Microsoft took a District Court to task for failing to recognize the existence of prior art for the Eolas web plug-in patent, resulting in a $521 million judgment against the software giant."

Comments

Incentives??

[SIGALRM]

methods and apparatus for encouraging viewers to pay attention to television programs, commercials in particular, by offering viewers some incentive to watch

The best incentive would be decent programming.

One more reality show like "Wife Swapping" and I'm going to kill my TV...

Re:Incentives??

[geminidomino]

One more reality show like "Wife Swapping" and I'm going to kill my TV..

Wasn't that originally done by Dave Chapelle as a SPOOF on reality TV? Ugh...

But don't kill your tv. Just cut your cable. If you kill your tv you lose your video games!

Re:Incentives??

[shadowbearer]

But don't kill your tv.

Letting your tv die of terminal loneliness is much better. :)

SB

Huh?

[Tsali]

We actually need to encourage people to sit around and watch television? Come on....

Sedentary life is its own reward.

So basically...

[Izago909]

They are trying to play both sides of the field. To me, Microsoft is like watching the homeless guy down the street have an argument with himself. Very entertaining, but it's advisable to keep your distance.

The good old days

[filtur]

I remember when good tv shows used to be the incentive to watch tv.

Try this!

[T-Kir]

He he, it's about time they try and patent 'Dodgy Business Practices' and 'Being a Monopoly'...

At least they'll be part of the prior art on those points. Plus, If they did ever patent those, then they could sue any other company that misbehaves (almost like an immoral moral guardian).

Secret Message:

[Bingo Foo]

Lameness filter, here I come:

B-E S-U-R-E T-O D-R-I-N-K Y-O-U-R O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E

(please tell me someone get the reference.)

Come on, this kind of encouragement has been going on for DECADES.

Re:Secret Message:

[kfg]

Yes, it does indeed seem that MS has been granted a patent on the Captain Midnight secret decoder ring.

KFG

Re:Secret Message:

[ip_fired]

I'm not sure where you might have seen that, but it was in my Discrete Math book in the section about RSA encryption. :)

Re:Secret Message:

[poot_rootbeer]

Come on, this kind of encouragement has been going on for DECADES.

RTFP. No, just skimming the Abstract isn't sufficient.

The patent describes a fairly specific method of encouraging and measuring a viewer's attention to detail. It's not nearly as insidious as the impression one might get from reading nothing but a one-sentence summary of the patent.

This happens with every story about patents on Slashdor. Half the posts are "surely product X constitutes prior art, it's different in concept and implementation but a ten-word summary of it would be mostly the same", and the other half are jokes about patenting the practice of filing junk patents. And both halves are certain they have the answer for reforming the Patent OFfice, which is obviously broken and needs to be replaced because some guy on a web message board, with no formal experience in patent law, doesn't understand it.

I give up. I'm heading over to my Preferences page to filter out whatever category patent stories end up in.

Re:Secret Message:

[WNight]

And inevitably, some schmuck comes along and points out a fairly trivial point that invalidates someone's joke of "Foo, but ... ON A COMPUTER", makes an anti-anti-patent rant, as if the system must not be broken just because if you look through all seventeen pages of lawyerese there's a single new idea.

I hope you aren't gunning for an 'insightful' mod.

It doesn't take a patent lawyer to judge the worthiness of the system. (There's a perfect example of attempting to put a fox in charge of the henhouse.) It only takes someone who can see that the patent office sees nothing wrong with the single-click patent (or any patent on a result for that matter) or with RAMBUS's submarine tactics. Both of these are obvious innovation stifling patents, yet the PTO's comment is that it's not their job to validate patents... !?!

So, because they've got some budget trouble, they issue government-mandated monopolies to people on whole areas of technology, making it the responsibility of everyone else to police the system. That's like me saying I can't afford to do my job and charging you, at random, for the results of fixing my lack of work.

But yeah, I don't have a degree in patent law so obviously I can't see how patents are getting broader and broader, until they barely mention any specific technology, and are being used to blackmail whole industries.

I call shenanigans!

[DeepHurtn!]

When was TV anything else besides a barren wasteland of corporate-enforced mediocrity?

Local News...

[changa]

I thought local shows have been doing this for years with contests?

"Just write down the the name of the visitor in today's show and send a postcard to Win a CAR P.O. blah blah..."

I seem to remember these as far back as the 80's.

That and local news pulling similar tricks to get you to watch.

Re:Come on

[Metallic Matty]

"ITs getting to a point that Microsoft is going to have a patent on everything."

You think Microsoft has a lot of patents? Check out IBM.