Online Game Environment that Facilitates Sponsorship Contracts

• US 20070191104A1
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Leviathan Entertainment, LLC
• Original Assignee: Leviathan Entertainment, LLC
• Inventors: Van Luchene, Andrew Stephen
• Application Number:
  US11/611,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20070191104A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements

Abstract

A system and method to allow players of a video game to form sponsorship contracts with one another such that a first player can agree, explicitly or implicitly, to provide a second player with an initial playing advantage in return for deferred compensation. The deferred compensation may be based on the second player'"'"'s performance in the game.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more servers hosting at least a portion of an online game environment;

a game console in communication with the server such that the online game environment is accessible to a player via the game console; and

a contracts database residing at least one of the one or more servers, wherein the contracts database includes data related to sponsorship contracts in the online game environment.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the contracts database includes data related to the creation of sponsorship contracts in the online game environment.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the contracts database includes data related to pending contracts.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the contracts database includes data related to active contracts.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the contracts database includes the terms of the active contracts.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the contracts database includes data related to expired contracts.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user-interface configured to allow the player to access at least some of the data in the contracts database.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the terms of an active contract identify a sponsor, a sponsoree, and at least one condition under which the sponsor is to be provided a benefit based on the sponsoree'"'"'s performance in the online game environment.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the system includes a benefit calculation module configured to identify when a condition has been met by the sponsoree and bestow a benefit to the sponsor.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a player account for one or more players accessing the online game environment.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising a player database including data related to the player accounts.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the data includes information identifying whether the player associated with the player account is eligible to enter into a sponsorship contract.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the data includes information identifying whether the player associated with the player account is eligible to enter into a sponsorship contract as a sponsor.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the data includes information identifying whether the player associated with the player account is eligible to enter into a sponsorship contract as a sponsoree.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the data identifies one or more prerequisite conditions that must be met by a player before the player is eligible to enter into a sponsorship contract as a sponsor, and whether or not the player has met the prerequisite conditions.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein one of the prerequisite conditions is payment of a fee.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein one of the prerequisite conditions is achieving a given result in the online game environment.

18. The system of claim 1 further comprising a contract value calculation module configured to calculate the periodic value for a sponsorship contract over time.

19. The system of claim 1 further comprising a sponsorship contract market configured to enable the players to buy and sell active sponsorship contracts.

20. The system of claim 18 further comprising an auction module configured to receive bids from a plurality of players and award a sponsorship contract to the player who provides a winning bid.