Understanding Virtual Reality

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The Metaverse has emerged as a hot topic in the tech space. With big names like Sony, Facebook, Microsoft, and others making huge investments in the domain, it promises to revolutionize the way people use digital technology in the future. It’s understandable, then, that companies big and small are eager to grab their piece of the metaverse pie. And Virtual Reality is one such component of the metaverse that has caught their attention.

The metaverse is an open and shared virtual world that can be accessed through Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, connectivity technologies, etc. In this article, we explore Virtual Reality as a future technology and a means of participating in the digital metaverse.

Table of Contents
Patented VR technology
Protecting Intellectual Property in VR
Patents
Copyrights
Trademarks
Conclusion
Understanding Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is software that creates an artificial simulati Colombia Phone Number Material on of the real world. Using a VR headset, the user can interact and enjoy an immersive experience with the computer-generated 3D environment. Apart from the software, VR technology consists of headsets, controllers, motion trackers, 3D cameras, etc., which together create a virtual environment.

It is an emerging technology that is finding use in areas such as sports, gaming, education, healthcare, retail, automotive, medicine, etc. For example, in online retail, VR allows you to try on makeup on your face or see how a piece of furniture will look in your room. Given the wide application that VR finds in various sectors, there is a significant opportunity for this technology.

But as companies move into VR and invent the technology to use it, they are facing the issue of IP protection. VR employs a number of complex processes and components to operate in both hardware and software. Does this mean that a company must patent both the software and hardware involved? How does VR patenting work? Since VR is essentially software, how do courts evaluate VR-related patents?

Patented VR technology
Like any other patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), VR patents must also meet the eligibility criteria of being novel, unique, or an improvement on existing technology, and industrially applicable. Many technology companies have successfully patented their VR technologies. Facebook has a patent for preventing user interface occlusion in a virtual reality environment. Apple has received a patent covering enabling drawing in a computer-generated reality environment.

The laws surrounding software patenting in the United States are currently confusing and complex. The US Supreme Court's decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, known as the Alice Framework, was one of the first to apply to software technologies. It dealt with one of the four components of patentability , i.e., eligibility. In Alice, software and computer-implemented technologies, such as VR, were deemed to be 'abstract ideas' that are not eligible for patents. It established a framework for determining whether ideas in patent claims are ineligible.

While the Alice Framework applies to all areas, its discontinuities have been most pron