360 by 360 Virtual Tours Under Heavy Attack

This is real and you heard me talking about it on our last RTV webinar. Full 360 by 360 virtual tours are being heavily attacked right now on the Internet. As many of you know,  the new RTV system is being programmed to support 360 by 360 images so an attack of this nature could soon be hitting too close to home for many of you. As a network it is time for us to pull our numbers together, educate ourselves, and help stop this fight against virtual reality. Even if you're not currently offering full 360 by 360 virtual tours please read on.

So what the heck is this all about?

You may have heard of the infamous '400 patent. ( US Patent 6,754,400 ). Anyone with knowledge considers it junk. It's almost as if they just copied Quicktime, iPix and various common virtual tour practices, wrote them down and claimed they invented it all -- in 2001. They sent it off to the US Patent office never acknowledging the existing "prior art." The patent examiners never noticed it so they gave them the patent. Done!

An outfit called Tour Technology Systems, LLC (TTS) now owns the patent and is using it to demand money from our clients. Yes not YOU…but the end users who have 360 by 360 virtual tours in their websites. This includes hotels, builders, realtors, facilities, anybody who uses 360 by 360 virtual tours!! TTS's lawyer sends them a letter saying their use of the 360 virtual tour infringes TTS's patent and demands significant money for their continued use or they will take immediate legal action.

Obviously, your client freaks out and immediately places an irate or distressed phone call to you, the person who sold them what now appears to be a "Bag of Goods". It is, after all, a real patent right??? Even if you try to tell your client that they are protected and that you used a different technology than the one referred to in the patent, it doesn't matter. The cost of defending against the '400 patent is too great. In most cases they get mad at you the photographer for putting them in this situation, ask for their money back, and ultimately they take the virtual tour down. Many of these customers will swear to never use VR tours ever again and often tell friends and family about the incident.  This of course is quite damaging to even those of us using cylindrical based technology.

And so the story goes. If you would like to find out how to help fight in this case you join us for an RTV webinar on June 7th at 7:00 Eastern. Henry Woodman of Ice Portal and myself will be talking about this patent and discussing the ways in which you can help the fight. Sign up for this show now in your TMS!

See you there RTV. We need all the numbers we can get.

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RTV, Inc
Virtual Tour Software & Digital Marketing Tools
866-947-8687 Ext 4
http://www.RealTourVision.com

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