Is Sony Trying to Patent MMO Events and Gatherings?

Could Sony be trying to patent real-world MMO gatherings and events? This application for a patent sure makes it look that way.

The patent application, filed in October 2010, seeks to patent “coordinating real-world gatherings to promote an online community.”

The application goes on to include “encouraging participants of the online community to participate in a real-world gathering by providing incentives for the participants; promoting familiarity among the participants by providing and introducing online community titles of the participants at the real-world gathering; and providing online benefits or rewards to the participants for participating in the real-world gathering.”

While this hardly means Sony is going to patent meet-ups, the complexity of the application indicates that this could be their attempt at patenting a ‘convention’ or gathering for a specific MMO, not unlike Blizzcon.

While this would be almost impossible to police and enforce, it does raise the question: what’s Sony planning?

[Thanks, Gcell.]