1. Hmm. I'm not sure that you can legally assert such a thing. Part of my job with IBM is to file patents for as many things as I can possibly think of. (We're all about innovation!) The only thing that can stop a patent is if there is "prior art". I.e. someone has done this before, or it has been done so in public for sufficiently long before the patent process has started.
And, in any event, half the trick of writing a patent is that fine line between making it so wide as to cover as many cases, and sufficiently specific not be thrown out for being too vague.
I've only had one idea that I've thought about filing on based on my Second Life experience. But if I write it up there will be no mention of Second Life in it at all. Just virtual worlds and 3D shared universes. I might cite Second Life implementations I've made of it to our internal review board to get past the "prove it is doable" hurdle, but for a patent proper you just have to show that it can be done, not that you've done it.
JC

Posted at 11:04PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Jaymin Carthage

2. What does this mean exactly? It appear to mean that if any SL user holds a patent, they surrender all rights to that patent to LL and every SL user simply by logging in. I'm not a lawer, but... that doesn't seem right.

Posted at 11:04PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Cubey

3. @Jaymin: Oh, it doesn't invalidate a patent, certainly. It's a deal like any other. If you use a patent within SL with respect to your content, you automatically agree to allow LL and all other users to use it.

Presumably the clause is intended to stop people holding other users and LL hostage by waving patents around on content that has been viewed/used/consumed and saying "Now you owe me money".

The issue here seems to be that it's quite the broad and far-reaching grant of license that you're agreeing to, and it's surprising.

@Cubey This would not affect the pile of patents sitting on your desk or mine - only the ones that we instantiate in some form in Second Life.

Posted at 11:09PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Tateru Nino

4. Just to continue my previous comment...

This is completely unconscionable. Simply by logging in, you surrender your patent rights to LL and absolutely anyone who has logged into SL? How could this possibly stand up in court?

That, I think, is the key. It won't stand up in court, but it will take someone with a crapload of money to even challenge it. Thank you American legal system. Justice for the wealthy.

Posted at 11:11PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Cubey

5. Written about this before sometime last year in the context of IBM.

Posted at 12:58AM on Sep 28th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

6. was there?, is there any evidence IBM /sun/intel/ etc has a special deal...? somehow i doubt it...

if so...tsk tsk..LL and thats another bag of worms that will end this dance sooner than later

ip and the tos is a mess since day one of the the linden ip change in 2003... i would hope linden isnt foolish enough to try to exercise any of these TOS terms...i dont think they will, and maybe a gadfly like benjamin has the post to correct this issue-or atleast get the tos to be revised to protect LL / not exploit its customers.

but then again, whos more cupable, LL for asking for ownership of patentable ideas and executions thye really have no right too, or the VC/ investor executives at CBS and others who now invested millions publically into ESC and folks "creating" corporate "tools and processes" for SL usage by clients and consumers?

gonna get messy... but in the end original IP creators will most likely win as the "contract" known as the TOS by linden will be tossed from most courts as unenforcable as were seeing even in a case like Bragg.

finally emporers naked for you fanboys...;)

c3

Posted at 4:36AM on Sep 28th 2007 by larry r

7. taking a big part of many people's life as hostage, and accepting as payment just anything the person can do, show, talk about etc is BROADLY OFENSIVE! xP

Posted at 1:37PM on Sep 28th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

8. Looks like LL is taking care of the "business in SL is real" myth! I just wish they did it up front so the rest of us could have been spared all the BS from the past couple years!

As is my saying with all things LL, "oh well, whatever, nevermind."

Posted at 3:44PM on Sep 28th 2007 by SqueezeOne Pow

9. Actually I like this clause. It provides a more solid legal ground for machinima and virtual photography against copyright claims.

Posted at 8:27PM on Sep 28th 2007 by skribe