Google Patents Displaying Athletes On Sports Fields 52
theodp writes "Just about anyone that's familiar with sports has seen position and depth charts, in which athletes are portrayed on the athletic fields their sport is played on. But that didn't stop Google from asking for — and the USPTO granting — a patent on displaying pictures of athletes on the fields on which their sport is played, or in legal-speak, its Method, System, and Graphical User Interface for Personalized Online Sports Team Charts. 'One aspect of the invention,' explains Google, 'involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a graphic of an athletic playing field or a portion thereof, and a plurality of player positions on the athletic field. At least some of the player positions contain thumbnail images selected by a first user. The thumbnail images provide links to corresponding profiles in an online social network.' Six Googlers, including Orkut Buyukkokten, were credited as inventors in the 2007 patent application."
Slashdot Patent Fail 69105 (Score:4, Informative)
The article is wrong.
This is what Google patented:
1. A graphical user interface on a computer having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs that when executed by the one or more processors generate the graphical user interface on a display device of the computer, the graphical user interface comprising: a graphic of an athletic playing field or a portion thereof, and a plurality of player positions on the athletic playing field, wherein at least some of the player positions have superimposed thereon thumbnail images selected by a first user, and wherein the thumbnail images provide links which, when selected by a user, provide access to corresponding profiles in an online social network, and wherein the athletic playing field graphic and the plurality of player positions containing thumbnail images selected by the first user are viewable by a second user who accesses a page corresponding to the first user, and wherein the first user and second user are both members of a same online social network.
In other words it's images of athletes linked in a particular way to via a social network.