Don't Hate the Player - Intellectual Property Analysis of Sony’s US Patent No. 8,000,581

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Patent application US 20110274409 filed by Sony has found its way into the news media. Sony has the gall to patent the operation of pausing play in video games in order to show advertisements. But among the mockery and outrage, where are the facts?

In what most tech commentators agree is a bad idea, Sony has been pursuing patents in which the play of a video game is paused to show advertisements. Interestingly, what most of the news organizations in their articles did not realize was that this application - US 20110274409 - is actually a continuation of US 8,000,581, a patent issued in August of 2011. Some commentators even failed to realize it was an application.

The reader should also be reminded of the fact that most patents are not put into use by their holders. As such, it is unknown if Sony will attempt to commercialize the patent, or rather use its growing patent family as defensive measures if another party attempts to do the same. However, sadly for Sony, they are not the first in this field.