Microsoft Patents Chatting while Watching TV
By Alexander Grundner |
April 28th, 2006
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The title pretty much says it all. According to Ars Technica, Microsoft has gained a U.S. Patent for a TV interface technology called Multimode Interactive Television Chat that allows users to chat by either video or text while their favorite TV shows play in the background (via Gizmodo). Of course, this type of convergence is nice, but is it really patent worthy?
I can see how Microsoft would be inclined to tie this feature into a MCE/Xbox Live style environment, whereby other users watching the same shows could talk to each other, but in my opinion Microsoft just killed off a logical next-gen feature – that I’m guessing might already be floating around. So what happens to the person or company who wants to create a Skype/AOL/Google/Yahoo chat plug-in for their preferred PVR/Media Center application. Are they now forced to pay royalties if it goes public?
It’s software patents like these that are under such hot debate among developers worldwide.
Filed in: Industry Buzz