Sex toy innovators of America: we have good news for you!
The so-called "teledildonics patent," owned by a company that many would deem a "patent troll," has just expired. Now US sex toy companies can create the Internet-controlled vibrators, dildos, and whatever else of their dreams with significantly less fear of being sued.
On Friday, US Patent No. 6,368,268 expired after being on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for 20 years. The company that had previously held the patent, TZU Technologies, LLC, of Pasadena, California, had filed 10 lawsuits alleging infringement since 2015—one as recently as December 2017. All suits appear to have been settled, with TZU Technologies receiving a payout in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.
This expiration news was met with great fanfare in the sex toy corner of the Internet, even meriting a mention from @RikerGoogling.
teledildonics
— Riker Googling (@RikerGoogling) August 17, 2018
Maxine Lynn, an intellectual property attorney with a expertise in sex and technology, emailed Ars that this patent previously held the industry back.
"The race will be on to create the most fantastic orgasmic experience possible over an Internet connection," she wrote. "The SexTech market is exploding with demand, meaning that there will be a lot of money in it for businesses who are successful in that effort."
Meanwhile, Daniel Nazer, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also applauded the occasion.
"It's a classic example of how an overbroad patent can frustrate innovation," he emailed Ars. "To the extent the industry faces other challenges because of a stigma against sex tech or adult products, those will remain. But at least startups in the space won't immediately get sued."
"Sexual stimulation device"
The patent—which was originally filed back in 1998 by three men, Warren J. Sandvick, Jim W. Hughes, and David Alan Atkinson—includes the most clinical way to describe sex toys ever written.
An interactive virtual sexual stimulation system has one or more user interfaces. Each user interface generally comprises a computer having an input device, video camera, and transmitter. The transmitter is used to interface the computer with one or more sexual stimulation devices, which are also located at the user interface. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, a person at a first user interface controls the stimulation device(s) located at a second user interface. The first and second user interfaces may be connected, for instance, through a Web site on the Internet. In another embodiment, a person at a user interface may interact with a prerecorded video feed. The invention is implemented by software that is stored at the computer of the user interface, or at a website accessed through the Internet.
We miss those 90s-era webcams. So cute! US Patent No. 6,368,268 While this patent might be from 1998, these graphics appear to be from the early 1980s. US Patent No. 6,368,268 Appletts abound! US Patent No. 6,368,268 "Mouse Joy Stick Custom" indeed. US Patent No. 6,368,268 "Is data proper format" is always a good question. US Patent No. 6,368,268
In other words, the patent describes how to let someone at the other end get you off, online. The same notion was described in the Chicago Tribune five years before the patent was ever issued.
Kyle Machulis, possibly the worlds foremost expert on teledildonics, noted that while the patents expiration is undoubtedly a good thing, it may not necessarily usher in a new era of digitally-induced sexyfuntimes.
"Stifling innovation means many people don't want to put in the work because they can't turn their idea into money," he wrote Thursday on his own website, Metafetish.
"In a capitalist society where you pay for your own healthcare, that's literally a question of life and death. It leaves the industry to those that got in early, that start out well off enough to fend off lawsuits, or who are weirdos like me who will happily produce shit and release it for free. One less roadblock in one country with an admittedly large market presence is good, but it's not a panacea. I'm not even sure it's going to fix much. Not gonna act like I don't have dreams, though. I'm probably more realistically optimistic about sex tech now than I've ever been."
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