Adwalker awarded US patent
Dublin-based firm Adwalker has been granted a US patent for its wearable interactive digital media platform. "We have always been aggressive on the IP (Intellectual Property) front," Adwalker spokesman Simon Crisp told ENN. "The wearable media market in the US is growing all the time, so there's real value in securing the IP, …
There goes the need for the doomsday sandwich board, you can now be informed interactively that the world is going to end. Most likely due to the police shooting everyone because of the backpack with circuitry and wires. I'm off to go climb back under my rock where it's safe.
... and nothing but dull content at best to flesh out the time between advert breaks.
Christ, is it not bad enough that brand-obsessed fools are walking around proclaiming their allegiance to D&G (or whomever) loudly in your face? Billboards are distracting enough, particularly when I'm cycling and I go past one of the M&S adverts with that Bahamian looking woman in underwear brandishing a feather duster.
Actually, an enormous billboard of that very advert is just down the road from the PC World (in Colliers Wood) featured in another Reg article.
Oh dear. After bringing that advert to mind I'm going to have to lie down for a while.
Its high time that whoever is in charge of the completely and utterly broken system known as the US patent system was moved to somewhere where they can do less damage.
There's nothing this can do that an LCD screen or even a 7-segment display can't already do so there is absolutely nothing worthy of a patent here.
Indeed, ebay has been selling programmable belts for some time (item 130157356735 is a random example), so wearing electronic information its not even a new idea.
This patent is completely and totally BOGUS and if the US patents office can't recognise that, its high time it was CLOSED DOWN.
Besides, I'd like to see how durable those things are. For example, are they made to resist a jaunt in the Underground without poking out a kid's eye ? Will these wearable screens rip or tear easily in the crowded sidewalks of Manhatten ? And just how much push and shove will they take in Tokyo - where there are three people per square meter all day long - and twice that in the metro ?
And if it can survive normal, day-to-day use without making everyone but the wearer bear the cuts and bruises, what about those who get mugged for the screen ? And what if the hoodies decide that they like the sound of breaking ad screens, and go on a rampage ?
Right. It's time I took my medication. If you'll excuse me . . .
Oh no.. not again....
This is an absolute joke; for your reading pleasure the patent number is 7265970 and
can be found using the following link.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7265970.PN.&OS=PN/7265970&RS=PN/7265970
The suitably (for patent applications) vague description and the amount of times 'may' and 'preferably' are used in the description mean that almost any wearable display under control of a 'computer' could be seen as violating this.
Tell me the USPTO isn't an invention of litigious lawyers.
With a straight face..
Someone please...
Fks sake.
Wearing screen on your tummy, now where have I see that before? Oh, yeah. I await the legal action with excitement:
Time for tubby court-date.
Adwalker, do they think we are morons, wait, are we morons???
I've got a few suggestions for the name of their first product; BrandSlut, PunchBag, MuggingVictim, TossPot.....
Hey everyone, look how rich Google is, lets do ads! Everyone's stealing our merchandise anyway, so at least with ads, we'll get paid something. What a bunch of Adwa*kers
