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BACKGROUND: The online video industry is growing in leaps and bounds. The recent sale of youTube to Google for 1.6 billions dollars is the biggest example yet that the online video industry is a giant evolving force. How is this possible? If you visit youtube.com/browse -- every day you'll find dozens of short 3-5 minutes amateur videos that get 20,000 views, within 24 hours of posting. Some get more than 100,000 views within 24 hours. Remember: on the internet, traffic equals dollars. That's why Google paid 1.6 billion for youTube.
PROBLEM: The best know and oldest video blog, rocketboom.com has struggled with sponsorship since day one. Revver and Metacafe have developed a couple of good profit models, but both have severe short comings.
SOLUTION: These days the ZeFrank show, www.zefrank.com/theshow/ar...01806.html, is one of the most popular video blogs these days. Last week, in an effort to increase sponsorship, Ze implemented a new business model, which is being called micro sponsorship. Note: the reason a youTube user can upload a 3 minute video and get 20,000 views in 24 hours, is because they have a following. ZeFrank has a following. He's been struggling for a long time with the problem of sponsorship. Nothing has worked. Now he's introduced his, gimmesomecandy.com micro sponsorship program and in one fell swoop has changed the whole online video industry.
HOW IT WORKS: Basically, instead of trying to sell ads to commercial sponsors, who would then sell products to viewers, he sells "duckies," which are little duck icons of thanks, and recognition to the viewers themselves. Viewers can purchase 5, 10 or $50, "duckies." Last week in one day he sold over $2000 of these little ducky icons. People who purchase one of these icons get to write 50 characters of text-- any text-- that appears when that "duckie" is moused over on the following days shows. Here's an example; that show where he made over $200 in one day. www.zefrank.com/theshow/ar...101806.html
A NEW BUSINESS MODEL: This micro sponsorship model is completely new! No one has ever done anything like this before. It is not just new, it is startlingly and exponentially more effective than anything anyone else has tried. Ze has, for all practical reasons, solved the single most important problem plaguing all the new video sites including, youTube. With this simple business model, both video producers and the sites that host them can now generate a constant stream of income off of all the traffic they generate. The technology is such that it is VERY EASY to add on to their existing web applications.
QUESTION: Is this new business model patentable OR is it now public domain, because it has been used already offered publicly?
PROBLEM: The best know and oldest video blog, rocketboom.com has struggled with sponsorship since day one. Revver and Metacafe have developed a couple of good profit models, but both have severe short comings.
SOLUTION: These days the ZeFrank show, www.zefrank.com/theshow/ar...01806.html, is one of the most popular video blogs these days. Last week, in an effort to increase sponsorship, Ze implemented a new business model, which is being called micro sponsorship. Note: the reason a youTube user can upload a 3 minute video and get 20,000 views in 24 hours, is because they have a following. ZeFrank has a following. He's been struggling for a long time with the problem of sponsorship. Nothing has worked. Now he's introduced his, gimmesomecandy.com micro sponsorship program and in one fell swoop has changed the whole online video industry.
HOW IT WORKS: Basically, instead of trying to sell ads to commercial sponsors, who would then sell products to viewers, he sells "duckies," which are little duck icons of thanks, and recognition to the viewers themselves. Viewers can purchase 5, 10 or $50, "duckies." Last week in one day he sold over $2000 of these little ducky icons. People who purchase one of these icons get to write 50 characters of text-- any text-- that appears when that "duckie" is moused over on the following days shows. Here's an example; that show where he made over $200 in one day. www.zefrank.com/theshow/ar...101806.html
A NEW BUSINESS MODEL: This micro sponsorship model is completely new! No one has ever done anything like this before. It is not just new, it is startlingly and exponentially more effective than anything anyone else has tried. Ze has, for all practical reasons, solved the single most important problem plaguing all the new video sites including, youTube. With this simple business model, both video producers and the sites that host them can now generate a constant stream of income off of all the traffic they generate. The technology is such that it is VERY EASY to add on to their existing web applications.
QUESTION: Is this new business model patentable OR is it now public domain, because it has been used already offered publicly?
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Re: New business model or not?
Mon, October 23, 2006 - 7:05 PM>>QUESTION: Is this new business model patentable OR is it now public domain, because it has been used already offered publicly?
It sounds as though it has been publicly used, so the technology will very likely not be patentable to anyone who didn't both:
- invent the technology and
- file a patent application prior to the technology becoming public.
Who knows? Perhaps someone filed a patent application that includes some or all of this technology prior to its public use. If that is so, patentability may depend on what was known in the art previously. -
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Re: New business model or not?
Tue, October 24, 2006 - 6:52 AMThanks for your reply Gary!
So, lets say hypothetically, this guy ZeFrank actually did come up with something new. The fact that this technology was used publicly before he filed for a patent, makes it public domain, and prohibits him from claiming any rights?
Wow! I think Ze missed a big opportunity here. -
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Re: New business model or not?
Tue, October 24, 2006 - 4:24 PM>>The fact that this technology was used publicly before he filed for a patent, makes it public domain, and prohibits him from claiming any rights?
Well, I suppose we don't know whether that's a fact or not (US patent applications aren't published until 18 months after their filing date, and not all of them are published). Maybe he did file a patent application.
Even then, there's a one-year grace period (in the US, but not most of the rest of the world) during which the original inventor can file an application following the inventor's public disclosure of the invention.
Even if all of these things are satisfied, the 'invention' still has to meet the requirements of patentability. I'm no expert in Internet / business method technology, but selling advertising to accompany video presentations doesn't seem particularly novel or non-obvious to me... Maybe I just don't fully appreciate what the guy's doing. -
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Re: New business model or not?
Tue, October 24, 2006 - 4:36 PMDang... He could be sitting on something very valuable.
Yes, I follow all these video sites. Not so much the videos but their social models AND especially their business models in regard to paying producers.
At this point, there are only a handful that pay anything, and no one has ever done anything like this. It's completely new. No one has ever implemented a business model that pays directly to the producer by the audience. Not in any way.
Good point though. Somebody could have filed for a patent during the past 18 months and no one would know about it.
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