Is Zynga Trying To Patent Virtual Currency? 89
sarysa writes "Techcrunch spotted a recent patent application by Zynga, attempting to patent virtual currency purchased with real money for use in a gambling context. It is unlikely that the application will pass due to a plethora of prior art where free MMOs that have gambling minigames would qualify, but Techcrunch also spotted that the application mentions Farmville as an example of embodiment. This indicates that Zynga may be attempting to patent non-refundable virtual currency as a whole. Should be interestering to see how this develops."
patents = virtual currency (Score:5, Informative)
It's like the IPv6 problem.
Many people can see that this is something that will be a key element of future society. It's just a matter of patenting as many related ideas now and waiting for them to come into use.
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Webpage_and_web_service_patents [swpat.org]
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Invalid_patents_remain_unchallenged [swpat.org]
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Patent_trolls [swpat.org]
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Divine_e-commerce_patents [swpat.org]
Re:casinos (Score:3, Informative)
> Surely online casinos have been doing this since forever?
Maybe, but this patent covers *a specific* implementation of virtual currency. Invalidating or avoiding it will require reading the claims, not the name or the abstract.
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/How_to_read_patents [swpat.org]