VR Porn Patent Issues and Barriers

As virtual reality immersion becomes more realistic and commercialized VR equipment more affordable, we are seeing an increase in VR and VR porn related technology and application patent filings. It is likely that we can expect VR porn patent lawsuits will increase as well.

The adult entertainment industry has always been an early adopter of new technology, VR porn is no exception. Since 2014, VR porn industry has been one of the most active and successful sectors in the global virtual reality ecosystem.

On the technology side, there has already been a few VR adult industry and sex toy related patent lawsuit. On the social side, as a new medium of porn consumption has raised some concerns regarding its potential issues and impacts on the society and human relationships.

VR Porn Patent Lawsuit Issue

There were some VR porn patent related lawsuits involving VR porn studios, sex toy makers and VR live-cam site. For more detail, check out these articles:

Virtual Immersion Technologies LLC is claiming its patent against live virtual reality operators. The patent 6,409,599 (“the ’599 patent”) is entitled “Interactive Virtual Reality Performance Theater Entertainment System.”

It relates to an immersive virtual reality environment, in which a live performer interacts with one or more participants, and includes live or prerecorded video and tools to enable the performer and the participant to each partially control the experience. The patent is not limited to VR porn, but likely covers VR interactions in other contexts.

VR live-cam site CamSoda and Spain-based adult film Virtual Porn 360, sex toy maker VirtuaDolls and the like are main targets for patent trolling. For more details regarding this lawsuit, please visit these three articles.

VR Porn Technology and Lawsuit

3 Patent Suits Filed Against Live VR Adult Sites

VR Adult Industry’s Potential Patent Lawsuit Issue

China Completely Banned Adult Content

China, one of the world’s largest consumer market, had openly and completely banned VR porn and all adult content on the web. Selling and owning 2D or VR porn content is strictly prohibited by law, you can literally be sent to jail for years for producing any kind of adult content. For details in this article.

Adult Content Law Across Asia

2D and VR porn produced by Western producers are generally deemed as illegal in Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. Because in these countries, it is deemed as illegal to distribute adult content that expose private genital areas of the porn stars.

We know it might sound ridiculous to Western audiences, because what is the point of watching porn is you cannot see men’s penis and women vigina? But it is what it is in this countries.

In other words, western-made VR porn cannot be legally distributed or presented in these markets. However, Western VR porn producers might be able to bypass adult content law in these Asian countries.Another major difference is that Japanese VR porn and 2D adult content produced in Japan are required by strict law to censor male and female porn stars’ genital areas, with a transparent patches during post-production.

Another major difference when it comes to adult content law regulation is that Japanese VR porn and 2D adult content produced in Japan are required by strict law to censor male and female porn stars’ genital areas. The genital area is required by law to be covered up with a transparent patches during post-production.

Referencing Japanese adult VR videos that are being legally distributed in these Asian countries. All they do is adding a pixelated patch in their post-production to blur the genital areas. But before doing so, we’d recommend to consult with adult industry lawyers to find out more details.

Asian Country Language Barrier

Many Western headset owners had long been expressing interests in Japanese VR porn content from various Japan-based platforms. However, the two main issues were the language barrier and available payment method.

Japanese VR porn sites such as Hbox is currently only available in Japanese, making it difficult to navigate. And also, it only accept Japan-based payment method, and does not accept commonly accepted payment method including credit cards, Swipe or Paypal.

It is because Japan has one of the largest adult movie consumption market and demographics in the world. The 2D and 3D content are original created for the Japanese market. But things are about to change with Adult Festa VR’ new global market expansion.

Adult Festa being the only exception, has recently launched a new site in English with over 1,000 videos. Combining videos from various studios such as KMP, Soft on Demand (SOD), Angel Castle.