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The so-called "teledildonics patent," owned by a company that many would deem a "patent troll," has just expired. Now US sex toy companies can create the Internet-controlled vibrators, dildos, and whatever else of their dreams with significantly less fear of being sued.
On Friday, US Patent No. 6,368,268 expired after being on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for 20 years. The company that had previously held the patent, TZU Technologies, LLC, of Pasadena, California, had filed 10 lawsuits alleging infringement since 2015—one as recently as December 2017. All suits appear to have been settled, with TZU Technologies receiving a payout in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.
This expiration news was met with great fanfare in the sex toy corner of the Internet, even meriting a mention from @RikerGoogling.
"The race will be on to create the most fantastic orgasmic experience possible over an Internet connection," she wrote. "The SexTech market is exploding with demand, meaning that there will be a lot of money in it for businesses who are successful in that effort."
Meanwhile, Daniel Nazer, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also applauded the occasion.
"It's a classic example of how an overbroad patent can frustrate innovation," he emailed Ars. "To the extent the industry faces other challenges because of a stigma against sex tech or adult products, those will remain. But at least startups in the space won't immediately get sued."
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Monday August 20 2018, @08:47PM (4 children)
With the new era of all connected sex-toys we may finally peek into the neighbor's room, (almost) legally with a search engine and the hopeless security of FIoST devices (Fucking Internet of Shitty Things).
I'd prefer /this/ particular patent to remain in effect while enforcement dictates non-use of the described invention.
However, as things are, we will see the sue-balls progress when the devices flood the marked and (ignorant) owners discovers that the neighbor is looking through the peeping hole. The (ignorant) owners will certainly say "Hey! we didn't know it was not secure!". The manufacturer will certainly say "have you read the TOS?". And then, the advertising companies; /they/ are the very happy ones because they now know how to (blackmail you) force you to buy stuff you do not need.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @08:53PM (3 children)
Teledildonics couldn't come into its own without VR.
Getting your security/privacy fucked can be a fetish. Exhibitionism?
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(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:01AM (2 children)
Are you kidding, I know a few girls that would post online the connection details just so strangers could watch/participate. Doesn't require breaking a single law if they're sharing it of their own will. Of course, this could open up a new avenue of "revenge porn" where ex-boyfriends/girlfriends post the connection data of their ex's sex toys which they're almost certainly going to have to throw away as most will likely have such crap security things as no or hard-coded passwords, non changeable IPs, etc.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:11AM (1 child)
Don't you mean you wish you knew a few girls......
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:31PM
In my particular case, happily no. I was no longer one of those geeks that couldn't get a woman, no matter how desperate I was anymore past age 22. Before then, that's another story. You can watch Revenge of the Nerds for my teenage years to that point.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday August 20 2018, @08:52PM (6 children)
Thousands of new IoT things, made by companies having little to no experience with IT? Sounds like a black-hat hacker's wet dream!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday August 20 2018, @09:19PM
DDOS cuming
(Dedicated Denial Of Sex)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday August 20 2018, @09:22PM (4 children)
I'm sorry but, in what world are the kinds of insular losers who can't get a date and resort to "teledildonics" not super fucking versed in IT?
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @09:53PM (1 child)
A world run by script kiddies, like, so duh.
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(Score: 4, Touché) by ikanreed on Monday August 20 2018, @09:59PM
The world is run by script kiddies.
Only the script is a nightly batch that moves money bits around a bank.
(Score: 3, Informative) by KiloByte on Monday August 20 2018, @10:10PM (1 child)
This "teledildonics" can be used in two setups:
• between two humans (a remote lover)
• with an AI by an idiot who doesn't know the basics about privacy
Your stereotypical IT person doesn't belong to the first group, and has enough clue to run any such software locally. Although, it's pretty hard to come up with a remotely operable sex toy fit for males (at least within current mainstream technology).
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @06:41PM
Hooking a fleshlight up to a piston isn't exactly rocket surgery, and it's been done already, by a good few companies. Never mind the oscillating "guybrators" that have been popping up over the past few years and potentials to integrate them with external controls. And it's probably not worth mentioning the other body parts men may wish to stimulate...
The real question is how many of these will be glorified Ohmibod/Lovense clones for guys, and how many will involve two way motion sensing to approximate actual intercourse (vaginal or otherwise). And then it will come to the market to decide whether the latter is actually all that much more worthwhile than the former...it's entirely possible that people will decide that humping an input device isn't as much of a turn on as turning up dials to get their partner hot and bothered, either with or without reciprocity on their end.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 20 2018, @09:09PM (1 child)
Alexa, strip down and play our mixtape*.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 20 2018, @11:05PM
You should try Havana onan ah [youtu.be]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @09:29PM (3 children)
It's heating up? The competitors had better be careful to not get burned! But if so it's the one time you'll want full-thickness and not partial-thickness. I guess the new players will just have to come as they are.
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Monday August 20 2018, @10:01PM
"The competitors had better be careful to not get burned!"
And the customers had better be careful not to get stiffed!
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 20 2018, @10:03PM (1 child)
Yep https://www.k-y.com/products/k-y-warming-liquid-personal-lubricant [k-y.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:30AM
But... does it have blockchain?
Otherwise it's not going to produce excitement in people with money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday August 20 2018, @10:06PM (3 children)
I've always found it amusing that the sex industry is one of the most innovative and inventive users of tech. To hear the prudes tell it, nothing good can come of such hedonism. Certainly not anything that requires thinking and brains! It's like they think sex rots your brain even more than drugs.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 20 2018, @11:11PM (2 children)
And yet the battery tech to power said toys has not advanced...
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:32AM
Planned obsolescence, no industry is immune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:34AM
It has advanced [archive.is] over time. Just not as much as we'd like.
Eventually, one of the many technologies that gets hyped up will actually pan out and replace Li-Ion. Then you can look forward to drones that can spy on you 2-5x longer and other marvels.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday August 20 2018, @10:16PM (2 children)
Patents are very easy. You want to use a patent, you make a deal. You pay the license. Or, buy the patent. If you're quick, FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE. They waited 20 years, too bad! #dayswithoutsex [twitter.com]
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @11:13PM (1 child)
Well they let a dildo like you on Twitter.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:36AM
The frigid alternative would have been worse for the industry, the femdom fetishists aren't a large enough a segment market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 20 2018, @11:15PM (5 children)
Toys can supplement sex, but even sex bots and teledildonics are no substitute for the real thing. If people veer too much into that realm social skills will atrophy and make it even harder to court; the result will be a yawning chasm of loneliness that will cause other social maladies.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:26AM (1 child)
Who can say that the sex bot of tomorrow (decades from now) won't be better than the real thing? Soft and wet as needed, complete "control" and "adjustments" on the order of milliseconds, etc.
Oh, you meant relationships. We can program that in! With a little strong AI, you can just switch it anywhere from "slave" mode to "reluctantly tolerating your presence and on the verge of divorcing you" mode*. Call it social sexbot training, promote it as actually helping to stop the decline of social skills.
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(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday August 21 2018, @02:08PM
AI in this area will have passed the Turing test when the robot can actually walk out on the owner and sue for ongoing support.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @08:47AM
The sky is falling! Is that it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:28AM
Exactly.
I always start romantic courting with in-person dildoing, otherwise the potential partner will think I lack social skills and not be interested in a second date.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @06:44PM
It'll cause other social maladies, but that'll only be temporary. You need to produce more children in order to have a society to have said maladies.
Basically, the world is going to turn into Japan.
(Score: 3, Informative) by black6host on Tuesday August 21 2018, @12:14AM
An article at The Reg https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/17/key_teledildonics_patent_gets_lifted/ [theregister.co.uk] mentions, and provides a link to a site called MetaFetish (probably NSFW which is why I didn't link direct), that brings up the idea that provisional patents related to the one that has expired will still impose licensing burdens and prevent or hinder newcomers to the US market.