Wide-Ranging Animation Patent Up For Sale, Potentially To 'Trolls'

A patent for a widely-applicable character animation system is up for sale through a patent broker, and could potentially end up in the hands of a "non-practicing entity" -- a.k.a., a patent troll. Global Technology Transfer Group, a self-described "patent assets monetization firm," announced last month that it is working with defunct game developer Stormfront Studios to sell U.S. patent 6,522,331, titled, "character animation using directed acyclic graphs [DAG]." In a press statement, GTT said that the patent is applicable to "many different modern video game and animation products," as well as animation platform providers. The patent, filed by Stormfront in 2000, describes an invention that facilitates more life-like digital character creation. The filing outlines "A character animation system, method, and computer program product for animating a skeleton" in which the "skeleton has bones arranged in a hierarchy. ... When a bone in the skeleton is animated, all of the bones below the animated bone in the hierarchy are also animated." Andrew Godsey with GTT told Gamasutra in a phone interview that his firm works with companies and individual inventors primarily to sell their patents, as well as to help them "understand the value" of their patents and how they can be used in an industry. GTT has been shopping the patent around to animation studios in both the video game and film industry on behalf of Stormfront, as well as software developers that provide animation tools, and investment companies that "are interested in how the patent has been adopted." Depending on who buys the patent, the new ownership could have an effect on companies and individuals that utilize the invention described in the patent. Godsey said the patent could be sold to an entity that actually uses the patent in its products -- but he was forthright in saying that GTT is also shopping the patent to "non-practicing entities" or, Godsey said, less politely, to "patent trolls." "Sometimes we get confused with [patent trolls], but we never own patents like that at all," explained Godsey. "However, groups that are non-practicing entities, we do approach them to see if it makes sense as an investment opportunity to them." The patent's inventor Mark Danks, who created it while working at the developer, and Stormfront founder Don Daglow did not return requests for comment regarding the sale of the patent. GTT went to market with the patent about three weeks ago and approached around 50 companies about the patent. "It's hard for me to tell what kind of group it'll end up with," said Godsey. His firm isn't particularly concerned with who buys it -- as sort of a "real estate firm for intellectual property," GTT is more concerned with generating income for itself and for current patent owner Stormfront. Right now, GTT is essentially telling potential buyers, "Hey, take a look at this patent, this might be interesting to you for either offensive or defensive purposes," according to Godsey.