I'm no expert in the area of who holds what patent positions in virtual agents. IBM, Oracle, SUN, and several others have patents and are doing extensive work in this area. There are many aspects. much of the efforts, as I understand it, is towards data mining and graphical representation of data for large corporations rather than being directed at the consumer internet level.
I don't think GM has that much control over this virgin market. They are certainly out in front with deployable technology but many others are racing toward similar ends. It remains to be seen how much market share they can achieve - that ultimately determines the degree of control they will have. As far as patents go, I don't expect there to be any single company that will hold enough IP to thwart the efforts of others. The basic structure of the internet and distributed processing makes it possible for several approaches to develop. Also, this is largely evolutionary rather than revolutionary technology. Most of the basic constructs have been developed for AI, NL, data mining, and other areas of development that now are part of the agent genre.
Again, I'm no expert and am careful about investing in companies - they must have products that are selling now or have great promise to attract my interest. |
