Balthaser Online Inc., the California-based manufacturer of the pro:Fx "online design system that empowers designers of all classes to streamline the development and maintenance of their rich media Internet production," recently obtained a patent on this technology. U.S. Patent No. 7,000,180 ("Methods, systems, and processes for the design and creation of rich-media applications via the internet"), issued earlier this month, discloses several methods and processes to create and maintain rich-media applications for a number of networks and devices. Neil Balthaser, CEO, considers this patent as "pioneer or umbrella," further stating that "if you got a rich Internet application, it is covered by this patent." According to the patent itself, "Rich-media components include 3D graphics, video clips, animation, special effects (including, but not limited to, zooms, wipes, fades, and spinning text), sound effects, and stereo music. Rich-media components may include WAV sound files, MP3 sound files, MPEG movie files, JPEG graphic files, GIF graphic files, SWF Shockwave Flash® files, and Java® applets."

U.S. Patent No. 7,000,180: LINK
Yahoo! News Story (TechWeb): LINK
Balthaser Online Rich-Media Website: LINK