An earlier posting speculated that Dassault Systemes might come under patent attack by Worlds.com, which claims to have invented the idea of 3D online spaces in 1995. The patent troll's lawsuit against NCsoft is just the first, it threatens. Virtual worlds is the primary selling point for Dassault's V6 line of software.
But now Eric Krangle of Silicon Alley Insider reports a white knight is on its way. ArticleOne Partners "is offering a cool $50,000 to anyone who can offer proof in the way of prior art substantiating the virtual worlds idea existed prior to 1995."
It's Crowdsourcing vs. Lawyers. ArticleOne makes back the prize money by selling the proof to the litigant under attack or anyone else. I wonder if I could make $50,000 by showing that DWG existed prior to Autodesk?
Ralph said, "I wonder if I could make $50,000 by showing that DWG existed prior to Autodesk?"
I can see no reason why you should not try, and I for one are happy to contribute and assist - for free: a reference found in the Australian Engineering Drawing Handbook, 1982 edition, Abbreviation Table 11.1 reads; 'drawing..... DWG or DRG
This table is preceded with this paragraph; "Table 11.1 contains general abbreviations of an English word in common use in engineering"
Obviously the use of DWG and DRG, as an abbreviation for the word 'drawing', was well established long before the edition I am quoting from but that just happened to be the earliest copy.
Also, it is interesting in John Walker's The Autodesk File .dwg rates several mentions; always as a file extension never as a file format!
Posted by: R. Paul Waddington | Jan 15, 2009 at 12:49 AM
The patent seems rather thin to me. AOL was beta testing 3D avatars (in their own separate on-line space) around the 90 - 95 time frame. One could say that it wasn't a completely new development to go from that failed attempt to a functioning 3D virtual world. You might be able to patent the compression and other technologies that later made a 3D virtual world usable, but it would seem the concept was already out.
Posted by: John N | Jan 20, 2009 at 06:57 AM