Back in January, we brought you news of a fascinating new technology demonstration at CES from a Taiwan’s Innovision which they called ‘HoloAD‘.  Using projectors and mirrors in a pyramidal configuration, they could created full 3D holograms within the chamber, making it perfect for small-site advertising.  The product got a great reception, mainly because of the glasses-free stereoscopic nature of it.

Last week I was contacted by Clas Durholm, the CEO of a danish company named RealFiction, who claims that HoloAD is a blatant rip-off of their own patented technology Dreamoc.  I dug a bit further, and while I remain as confused as ever, I share the information here for you to draw your own conclusions.

I’m not a patent attorney, but the initial impression does look like they may be onto something when the RealFiction product is protected by:

  • Europe: EU Design No. 001066278-0001, 001041289-0001, 000852108-0001 and 000835806-0001
  • US: Design Patent Application No. 29/332,917
  • Japan: Design Patent Application No. 2009-020417

However, I’m currently unable to actually find any of these patents or patent applications anywhere.  Searching USPTO.gov, Google.com/patents, ipdl.inpit.go.jp (Japanese Patent Registry), and the eSpaceNet Intellectual Property Office (the EU Patent Office) all turned up empty.

However, legal aspects aside, it definitely seems the two technologies are based on the same core concept. Check out RealFiction’s product demonstration video for the Dreamoc:

And then check out this video of the HoloAD from CES:

Yep, they both look the same to me. Did one company steal the tech from the other? Is one company simply reselling/rebranding the tech from the other? Or, are both companies reselling/rebranding the tech from a 3rd unknown party? Your guess is as good as mine. If you have some insight, put it in the comments.

I post this here simply to show no clear partisanship to either side.