This patent is not applicable to the 360-deg market
Actually....it looks like it does apply. Anyone have a lawyer that can vet this out?
INFRINGEMENT OF U.S. PATENT NO. 6,754,400
6. Tour Technology Software is the owner by assignment of United States Patent
No. 6,754,400 (“the ‘400 Patent”) entitled “System and Method for Creation, Processing
and Visualization of Omni-Directional Images,” as amended and elaborated by Ex
Parte Reexamination Certificate 9844.
7. The ‘400 Patent is the product of a concerted effort to develop a technology
which would work, for example, to enable an individual at a monitor, for example a
monitor of a computer connected to a network such as the Internet, to explore an indoor
or outdoor location by viewing and optionally selecting and/or varying an angular
direction of view and being presented with an image corresponding to an image that
Case 1:19-cv-00245-RJJ-RSK ECF No. 1 filed 10/04/17 PageID.2 Page 2 of 11
would be visible to the individual if the individual were actually at the location and
looking at the scene at the selected and/or varying angular direction of view, for
example a continuously changing angular direction.
8. The object of the technology underlying the ‘400 Patent is thus to enable virtual
viewing and/or exploration of, for example, an indoor or outdoor location (such as an
apartment, home, hotel room, backyard, outdoor attraction or restaurant), in a manner
which will be accepted by the viewer as substantially realistic.
9. The invention of the ‘400 Patent enables such exploration to simulate realistically
the changing images that would be seen by a real person in the actual location as that
real person looks around, turning the head or moving the individual’s eyes, for
example, left and right, and up and down to explore the view.
10. The general idea of simulating a view of reality from different angles was being
discussed and to a limited extent implemented by many individuals and groups before
the invention of the ‘400 Patent was made.
11. Moreover, systems which were generally dealing with various aspects of virtual
reality displays were proposed.
12. However, realistically simulating the appearance of a location as it might be seen
by an individual at the location, as that individual changes his angle of view in the
normal course of looking around, is not merely a matter of presenting images
corresponding to a point of view and angle of observation . Moreover, the problem of
obtaining a realistic presentation is complicated when a series of images corresponds to
a varying angle of observation.
Case 1:19-cv-00245-RJJ-RSK ECF No. 1 filed 10/04/17 PageID.3 Page 3 of 114
13. To the end of improving then existing technologies, Richard Wilson, Jr., who, at
the time of the development of the invention of the ‘400 Patent, operated a business
doing website design for a wide range of different clients through his consulting
business in Queens, New York, began to assemble a team of computer specialists to
attack this problem.
14. Space was rented, people were hired, and work was begun in the United States
and in a programming unit, which Wilson set up in Romania.
15. All of this was funded by Mr. Wilson using his personal resources.
16. Despite numerous difficulties in pursuing this effort, Rusu Florin and Sever
Serban, working for and funded by Wilson from Wilson's personal funds, were
successful in developing and implementing an effective software based technology
useful, for example, for allowing a person at a remote location to connect to a server and
explore a remote space with enhanced realism.
17. Richard Wilson, Jr. then had a patent application directed to the new technology
prepared.
18. The application, entitled “System and Method for Creation, Processing and
Visualization of Omni-Directional Images”, was filed with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office on February 6, 2001.
28. In its decision, the United States Patent and Trademark Office further
determined that claims 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 19-22, 24-29, 32, 34-37, 39 and 40 which are
dependent on the amended claims were also patentable.
29. Such decision also found new claims 41-75, added to the ‘400 Patent during the
re-examination procedure, also drawn to patentable subject matter. A copy of the 9844th
Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate is annexed hereto as Exhibit B.
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Here is the complaint in it's entirety