"Niantic Applies for US Patent on Raids"

#PokemonGO: As a patent attorney and avid fan of PoGo, I occasionally check in on Niantic’s patent filings to see what might be coming down the pipe. I haven’t done so in a while, so I was reasonably excited today to find that a Niantic application published back in December. The application, published as US 2018/0361248 generally aims to cover raids. For example, independent claim 1 is generally directed to a method involving the following steps (with how they correspond to the PoGo experience):receiving selection of a virtual element located at a virtual location in a virtual world that corresponds to a real world physical location;(The user selects a gym that corresponds to a real-world location)determining a virtual location of a player in the virtual world based on a real world location of a client device associated with the player;(Check to see where the user is in relation to the gym)providing, responsive to the virtual location of the player being within an interaction range of the virtual location of the virtual element, an indication that the shared virtual experience is available;(When the user is near the gym, let the user know s/he can join the raid)receiving player input requesting participation in the shared virtual experience;(Take a raid pass from the player)assigning the player to a lobby for the shared virtual experience responsive to the player input, the lobby having a specified start time for the shared virtual experience;(Put the player in a lobby with a countdown)providing the shared virtual experience at the specified start time, the shared virtual experience including interaction with other players who were in the lobby; and(Start the raid when the countdown is over)sending a game data update to a game server based on an outcome of the shared virtual experience.(Update the server based on outcome of the raid)One thing that’s fun to look at in a patent application is what they describe as possible alternative embodiments. These are typically ideas that haven’t yet made their way into a commercial product, but the company thinks might be valuable in the future. One thing that jumped out at me was the description that “a user located in the real world near a museum can be provided an opportunity by the virtual game to receive a virtual museum ticket in the virtual world, wherein the virtual museum ticket can be redeemed in the real world for admission to the museum.” (Para. [0104].) In other words, you could get a ticket in game, then use that ticket to attend an actual event. (Sound like this year’s Go Fest distribution at all?)Also interesting is Para. [0108]:“Still other exemplary applications of data associated with real world actions can include a first user and second user that travel to a real world location to exchange virtual elements in a virtual world between one another. A first user can travel to a real world location and leave a virtual element in the virtual world for the second user.”This could just be referring to item-sharing in Ingress, but could also be a hint at something to come for PoGo.Continuing with Para. [0108]:“A first user can leave a virtual passport at a real world airport for a second user. The second user can collect the virtual passport by traveling to the airport, which will then allow the second user to travel in the virtual world to another location that would otherwise be inaccessible. However, a third user can be prevented from accessing the virtual passport if, for example, the third user is not a part of the same team or group as the first user.”While it’s written in patentese and requires some deciphering, it’s a fun look into what may be coming in PoGo. Also, there may be some more treats and treasures in there that I didn’t notice on my first read-through, so feel free to peruse it and let me know what you think!tl;dr: Niantic has applied for a patent that would cover raids. Read through the description and see if we can come up with some not-entirely-baseless speculation as to what else might be coming down the pipe! via /r/TheSilphRoad http://bit.ly/2U7yhO1