Comment on Anon notices what they've taken from us
vexikron@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Do many people know that there is actually a patent for the idea of an advertisement that plays to a certain point… and then does not end, will not let you skip it, until you as the user, via a camera and microphone, can be verified to have assumed a pose, made a facial expression, and/or said a specific phrase?
The actual patent shows a smart tv ‘owner’ standing up and saying McDonalds! in order to like keep watching Netflix.
We quite literally have the tech and the legal framework for ‘Drink Verification Mountain Dew Can’ to actually be a thing.
antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
The illustration of that patent practically a meme, many on Lemmy should know it.
Though it should be kept in mind there’s thousands of patents that were never actually applied, and this one was filled back in 2009.
pivot_root@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This is genuinely a good thing, then. If you patent something and “accidentally” never use it, it prevents other companies from using it legally. Screw over advertisers and save the consumers from their terrible ideas by hoarding patents and working with a patent troll firm :)
unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
Not really. Patests expire and then they can just read the specs in your idea. No reverse-engineering effort required.
pivot_root@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It takes 20 years for patents to expire, and you can’t commercially use the patented method until then. If I “invent” and patent 50 different methods to track viewer attention during video advertisements, that’s 50 fewer ways that some company would be able to achieve it.
It would be impossible to cover every possible method to achieve the same thing, but the risk of violating a patent held by a highly litigious patent troll might be a good enough deterrent to stop the whole idea from making it to market for a couple decades.
vexikron@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Eh? Do patents necessarily have to follow the law?
…no? They are ideas.
They are also a legal construct to organize business uses and control of ideas around.
Hence a patent and the patent system are a legal framework.
Legal frameworks are often involved in things that later end up being determined to be illegal.
Large businesses usually like to set up some kind of comprehensive legal framework before they roll out a new product or feature.
Not saying they will. I am saying setting up a legal framework is usually groundwork before you do though.