OVERTURNING THE BARSTOW SPORT EVENT PATENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This document contests the validity of 4 US patents, 5526479, 5671347, 6204862, 73773587, filed by Mr BARSTOW, in the 1990’s essentially for Baseball in the U.S. The patents are currently being used to file suits against some of the world’s top sports information suppliers. The patents all ignore worldwide prior art of the 1980’s, developed in Europe, in Tennis, Cricket, Golf and Snooker. All 4 Barstow 1990’s patents state, “A live event may be broadcasted by producing a computer coded description of the sub-events that constitute the event. The coded description is stored in a centralized computer data base and the information thus stored is accessible by a viewer's computer. That viewer computer then produces a computer simulation of the live event using the coded description.” and proclaim that prior art “simulation techniques have not been utilized in conjunction with the broadcast of live events, which can be represented as a sequence of well-defined actions”. This document refutes the prior art statement vigorously, given that extensive European prior art existed from the beginning of the 1980’s using precisely the techniques claimed as new by BARSTOW in the 1990’s. In addition the document suggests that BARSTOW never took his full patent idea to market, because the patent omits fundamental steps necessary for a commercial system. Indeed, when he did get to the baseball market in 1995 with an event viewing process, he paradoxically appeared to rely on STATS, Inc. to enter the coded event descriptions at the different ballparks, and appeared never to attack STATS, Inc. for breaching this essential part of his patent. Accordingly, STATS, Inc. may also have prior art to invalidate the BARSTOW patent. The patents are currently the property of DDB Technologies, L.L.C., and have been recognised, for example, by a March 2010 settlement with MLB Advanced Media, L.P., and a license agreement with Sportsline.com Before becoming aware of DDB patents, DDB filed and settled multiple lawsuits in 2010 in the U.S. against MLB Advanced Media, L.P., and other major sporting leagues and sporting news content providers. Defendants include Time Inc. , PGA Tour Inc. , Yahoo Inc. , NBA Media Ventures LLC, ESPN Inc. , NFL Enterprises LLC, AOL Inc. , NHL Interactive CyberEntreprises LLC , NHL Enterprises LP and NHL Enterprises Inc. More recently, DDB has re awakened, to charge additionally Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC; NeuLion, Inc. et. al..; The Computer Information Network, Inc.d/b/a The Sports Network ("TSN"); SportsDirect, Inc.; Internet Consulting Services, Inc. d/b/a Sidearm Sports; PrestoSports, Inc.; Daktronics, Inc.; Major League Soccer, L.L.C.; Stat Crew Software, Inc.; CSTV Networks, Inc. d/b/a CBS Sports Network et al. European prior art using the methods patented by BARSTOW in the 1990’s, was proposed in 1980, prototyped in 1981 and operated commercially in 1982 with Tennis at the French Open, Roland Garros. By 1989, complete systems for Tennis, Cricket, Golf and Snooker were operational, in Europe and Australia. Systems included live data capture, transmission to local Scoreboards/Displays, with onward transmission to Voice Servers, and TV broadcasts. The world wide Press Agencies (Associated Press, and Reuters) commenced receipt of their fully formatted proprietary feeds worldwide from 1989. It is for lawyers to take this document forward to render the BARSTOW patents invalid, and relieve sport of the DDB curse. Stephen Parry; 3 December 2011. Scoring Art – Stephen Parry – 3 December 2011 Page 1 of 29 SUMMARY INDEX The essential claim is that an event can be expressed as a sequence of coded actions....................................................................................................... 3 The title of the first BARSTOW patent is for pattern matching techniques .......................................................................................................................... 4 The four subsequent patents, all have IDENTICAL abstract, field of invention, related art and summary invention texts................................................ 5 With detail as follows…........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 However the BARSTOW patents consistently ignore European prior art.............................................................................................................................. 7 Additionally it is unlikely that BARSTOW implemented commercially his patents in full..................................................................................................... 8 The European prior art has covered top sports events worldwide, for over 30 years, using coding and event sequences since 1981.............................. 9 TENNIS ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 CRICKET................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 13 GOLF ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Link to PRESS AGENCIES ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 SNOOKER.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 The European prior art of coded data capture has thus progressively increased in number of sports and countries, such that by 1989, Tennis, Cricket, Golf and Snooker were all implemented. Cricket and Snooker additionally always used coded event sequence techniques. Golf scores are naturally a sequence of events – the score at each hole..................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 From 1982, coding was used to communicate Tennis sports scores to different locations. .............................................................................................. 17 From 1983, the Headingley Cricket scoreboard was driven by new, highly innovative software, which used coded sequences of events with extensive validity checking ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 The software was designed to use external validity checking definitions and software generation modules.................................................................. 18 Prerequisite: Knowledge of cricket scoring is a prerequisite to a full understanding of this approach............................................................................. 18 The User Interface was simple ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 The system outputs to display and remote devices ............................................................................................................................................................. 19 Display devices..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Voice service......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 The core of the system was a Central Database .................................................................................................................................................................. 20 Error recovery was essential................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20 Operator/Input error ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Computer failure .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20 Link failure...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................