谈创新效率：美国专利局花8年完成一项云游戏专利审批

一家创业公司最近成功获得了自己的新型在线游戏方式专利。美国专利局花了八年时间完成对OnLive公司专利的审批。该公司总裁表示这种延时对于颠覆性的创新来说很正常。

美国第7849491号专利表述了一种远程服务器运行快节奏电子游戏，通过有线或无线方式将游戏发送给瘦客户端的技术。OnLive在今年3月发布了自己基于此技术的云游戏服务，该服务可用于多种系统，包括PC、Mac和OnLive自己的微主机(micro-console)。

OnLive的核心技术是一种快速压缩技术，可以以不到80ms的延时将数据包发送到一千英里以外。OnLive自行设计了用于网络服务器和微主机的编、解码ASIC。

这种技术的初衷是将电子游戏从相对昂贵的游戏机和PC上搬走，转为一种网络服务。资深创业者、OnLive总裁Steve Perlman表示：“我们认为这种变革将会发展到游戏产业。如果不是这么颠覆性的新概念，关键专利很少需要这么长的审核时间。对于绝大多数创业公司来说，为一项关键专利等待八年很可能无法及时得到注资、推出产品。”

Perlman表示，发明者在十几年前需要先取得专利，以此获得注资开发产品。专利局现在累积了大量需要审批的专利，这种模式已经难以为继、创新也因此受到打击。

Perlman是一位拥有104项专利的发明者，在专利模式改良的话题上很坦率，他说：“我和刚毕业的年轻工程师谈到创办新公司时感到很郁闷。他们觉得专利不可能及时获准，因此不得不想一些不那么突破、不需要专利的点子。也就是说我们不再寻求突破性地想法，这对整个行业和经济来说都不是好事。”

Perlman说OnLive的专利的审批直到提交五年之后才开始。

2010年年初，美国专利局挤压着75万项专利。新局长David Kappos曾任IBM知识产权部门主管，他表示希望到今年年底能将积压专利数量削减为70万。

有一些个人和组织正在呼吁增加对专利局的拨款，雇佣更多的检查者消除积压专利。专利局在过去几年里试着每年聘用、训练1,000名检查者，但专利局每年会要流失大约三分之一的检查者。

Perlman说Kappos已经“在自己微薄的预算里作出了一些改变，但专利局的人员流动率实在太高。”

点击进入第二页：数以百计的专利申请还未了结

{pagination}

有消息显示众议院Lamar Smith将会在下一届立法会议里提出专利改良。这份改良草案已经引发了争议，主要集中在提高专利诉讼的效率上。

Perlman说：“很难想象他们能在处理完积压的专利申请之前作出任何根本性改变。”

数以百计的专利申请还未了结。

OnLive已经在全球范围递交了包含数百项申请的专利组合，其中包括数千项云游戏技术的声明。有些专利通过Perlman的创业公司孵化器Reardon Labs递交。

Perlman说：“这是围绕一项技术集结的最大的专利组合。我们通过一份巨型电子表格追踪所有这些专利申请的进度。”

Perlman不愿透露任何关于主张这些专利的计划。他也拒绝透露使用OnLive服务的厂商数量。不过他说OnLive服务正在高速增长，创建过的进程数以百万计。

OnLive服务使用三家位于美国的数据中心，正在与合作伙伴准备亚洲和欧洲的测试。OnLive服务一开始只支持PC和Mac的有限连接，现在开始支持Wi-Fi连接。

OnLive也可以通过多款电视和iPad使用。用于Google Android手机的版本正在进行测试。一个使用OnLive服务的iPad应用程序目前在美国的受欢迎程度排第七。

Perlman表示内置支持OnLive进程硬件解码的电视和蓝光播放器将在2011年面世。

Perlman还说，绝大多数快节奏电子游戏现在还不支持平板和智能手机所用的触摸界面，但情况正在改变。“游戏开发需要三到四年，目前上市的游戏基本都为键盘和手柄开发，开发者们在项目开发之初完全无法想象现在游戏可以通过一台基于ARM的设备来玩。”

点击进入参考原文：Cloud gaming patent arrives--after 8 years, by Rick Merritt

《电子工程专辑》网站版权所有，谢绝转载

{pagination}

Cloud gaming patent arrives--after 8 years

Rick Merritt

A startup has been awarded what it claims is a broad patent on its new style of online gaming. The U.S. patent office took eight years to review and grant OnLive's patent, typical of the kind of delay that is undermining innovation, said the startup's chief executive.

U.S. Patent #7,849,491 describes a technique for delivering fast-action video games running on remote servers to a wired or wireless thin-client device. OnLive announced its cloud-based gaming service based on the approach in March, and it is now available on a range of systems including PCs, Macs and the company's own so-called micro-console.

The startup's crown jewel is a rapid compression technology capable of transporting packet data up to a thousand miles with latency of less than 80 milliseconds. OnLive has designed encoding and decoding ASICs for its approach that are used in the company's custom-designed network servers and microconsoles.

The technology aims to shift videogames away from relatively expensive consoles and PCs, making it a network service. "We recognized the transformational effect this would have on the videogame industry," said Steve Perlman, OnLive chief executive and a serial entrepreneur.

"Eight years would be too long to wait for a key patent if this was not such a fundamentally new concept," said Perlman. "For most startups, if it took this long to get a key patent, they could not have gotten funding or gotten a product out in time," he said.

A generation ago, inventors would get a patent to get funding so they could develop a product. Given the historic backlog at the patent office, that's no longer possible and innovation is suffering, said Perlman.

"It's depressing when I talk to young engineers coming out of college about creating a new company," said Perlman, an inventor with 104 patents who is outspoken on the topic of patent reform.

"They can't expect a patent to issue in time to get funding, so they have to think of ideas that are not significant enough to need a patent," he said. "That means we are not seeking fundamental ideas anymore, and that’s not good for the industry or the economy," he added.

OnLive's patent was not even examined until five years after it was submitted, Perlman said.

The U.S. patent office had a backlog of about 750,000 applications at the start of 2010. The agency's new director David Kappos, former head of IBM's intellectual property department, said he hopes to pare that down to less than 700,000 by the end of the year.

Several individuals and groups have called for boosting funding for the agency to help it hire and retain more examiners to work off the backlog. The agency has been trying to hire and train as many as 1,000 examiners a year for the last several years, but loses almost a third of its examiners each year.

Kappos has "made some changes and tried to work in the cramped budget he has, but the turnover rate there is incredible," said Perlman.

Sources suggest Lamar Smith (R., Tx.) in the U.S. House of Representatives will try to bring up the topic of patent reform in the next legislative session. The draft reform has been controversial and is primarily focused on streamlining issues in patent litigation.

"It's hard to imagine making any headway until they dig out of this backlog," said Perlman.

Hundreds of patents pending

OnLive has filled the global patent pipeline with a portfolio of hundreds of applications with thousands of claims for its cloud-based gaming techniques. Some are filed under the names of other companies that are part of Perlman's Reardon Labs, an incubator for startups.

"This is the largest portfolio of patents assembled around one technology," Perlman said. "We have a giant spreadsheet to keep track of them all," he said.

Perlman would not comment on any plans to assert the patents. He also declined to comment on the number of subscribers for the OnLive service, however he did say it is experiencing rapid growth and has hosted millions of sessions to date.

The service uses three data centers in the U.S. and is working with partners on beta trials in Asia and Europe. It started as a wired-only service for PCs and Macs, and now supports Wi-Fi links.

OnLive can also be used via some TVs, and games can be viewed on Apple iPads. A version of the service for Google Android systems is in beta testing. An OnLive application was recently ranked as the seventh most popular app for iPads in the U.S.

TVs and Blu-ray players will be available in 2011 that build in hardware compression decoders to handle OnLive sessions, Perlman said.

Most fast-action video games do not yet support the touch interfaces used on tablets and smartphones, but that is changing, Perlman said.

"Games take three to four years to develop, so when today's games were started developers never imagined them being played with touchpads on ARM-based devices—they were written for keyboards and joysticks," he said.