A patent has been granted to a relatively unknown California Web-design firm for an invention its creator says covers the design and creation of most rich-media applications used over the Internet. The patent holder, Balthaser Online Inc., says it could license nearly any rich-media Internet application across a broad range of devices and networks.
Potentially tens of thousands of businesses--not only software makers employing its business processes but companies offering rich-media on their Websites--could be subject to licensing fees when they use rich-media technology over the Internet.
The patent--issued on Valentine's Day--covers all rich-media technology implementations, including Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML, when the rich-media application is accessed on any device over the Internet, including desktops, mobile devices, set-top boxes, and video game consoles, says inventor Neil Balthaser, CEO of Balthaser Online, which he owns with his father Ken. "You can consider it a pioneering or umbrella patent. The broader claim is one that basically says that if you got a rich Internet application, it is covered by this patent."
Rich media is a broad range of interactive digital media that display dynamic motion, exploiting enhanced sensory traits such as video, audio and animation.
"It's kind of unbelievable that [the patent] has such a wide ranging use because it covers so many technologies," says Bola Rotibi, a senior analyst at Ovum, an IT advisory firm in London. If the patent is enforced broadly, she says, "anybody who does anything with rich applications will have to pay royalties to the company."
That isn't lost on Balthaser, and its patent lawyer Don Pelto of Preston, Gates, and Ellis. "The considerable value of the 180 patent in the rich media and rich Internet applications areas cannot be understated," Pelto said in a statement.
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