It has been over 5 years since one of our founders, Chris Norman, filed for patent protection for a business model for consumer-driven customization. The patent was provisionally filed in April 2006 and subsequently filed actual in 2007 under US patent application 11/750,499. In 2008, Digital Reality hired the Matthews Firm to represent the company during patent prosecution and the new firm filed a CIP application this year.
The patent was filed BEFORE the company disclosed the business model to the public. The original beta website defining the business model can be viewed here:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/08/3d-mass-customization.html
The business model was put into writing in 2004 under signed NDA's with then CTO Chad Oliver.
The patent was just published and is viewable at the USPTO web site. Please visit:
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220110313878%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20110313878&RS=DN/20110313878
