Sega Sets Its Lawyers on Professor Layton Developer

[The Wooster]

Sega Sets Its Lawyers on Professor Layton Developer

Sega and Level-5 are set to duke it out in court over touchscreen gaming patents.

According to Yomiuri Online, Sega is suing Professor Layton developer, Level-5, over its use of touchscreen mechanics in popular, Japanese football series, Inazuma Eleven. The original news piece and the Kotaku translation are kind of vague on exactly what the patents being disputed entail, but they're described as "a mechanic that allows players to move characters via their finger or touch pen." NeoGaf user, RyanDG, managed to dig up one the actual patents, [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45307168&postcount=104] which refers specifically to touchscreen control in football games, though apparently Sega has suggested it can use the patents to cover any genre.

Inazuma Eleven or Lightning Eleven is a role-playing soccer game that started on the DS back in 2008. Despite the franchise's huge success in Japan, none of the games have made it to the states. The first game in the series received a UK release in 2011, some three years after it hit Japanese shelves.

Sega is calling for a halt on sales of all eight games in the Inazuma series, as well as a hefty ¥900 million (roughly US$11 million) in damages. Level-5 intends to fight the lawsuit, and is currently preparing a rebuttal. Opening arguments for the case were heard on December 7th.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5967403/sega-is-suing-the-crap-out-of-level+5?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow]

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[Soviet Heavy]

Next up, Sega sues Rayman's developers for using the X button to jump.

 

[snekadid]

"a mechanic that allows players to move characters via their finger or touch pen."

And this is why patent law needs to be torn down and started again, because this right here.... is batshit crazy.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Level-5's opening arguments really should go something along the lines of "that's stupid and you're stupid.*"


*[small]not addressed to anyone on the forum, just in case that wasn't clear[/small]

 

[ASnogarD]

Seems Sega Japan has fired all its developers and hired on more Lawyers ...

Closing fan channels for the popular Shining series, going as far as to get channels taken offline for merely having some old Shining material.
Now chasing a developer over a touch screen control mechanic... surely you cant patent control mechanics used on a gaming device, what happens if the button patent owner decides to cash in on retrospectively...

... who was the first to use a gamepad to move characters, and buttons to do actions ?

Sega Japan , leaving the games industry and moving onto patent trolling.

 

[DustyDrB]

It seems that when companies feel like pulling some dick moves, they do so in spurts.

Man, that was awful phrasing...
...
..
.
I'm keeping it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

How in the bloody fuck did they get the patent for that, hell even Apple got ***** smacked for trying it.
Seems Sega just went all out batshit and the trolling wave goes on.

 

[gigastar]

Has SEGA Japan gone a bit mad recently?

Yesterday they started a DMCA campaign on youtube channels seemingly to purge all reference to the Shining series from unofficial sources.

 

[snekadid]

How in the bloody fuck did they get the patent for that, hell even Apple got ***** smacked for trying it.
Seems Sega just went all out batshit and the trolling wave goes on.

Yea, but they bring us such hilarious moments like when apple sued a Mexican company because they were named ifone for trademark infringement without doing their research. Ifone was trademarked long before the iphone name brand was and now they owe a ton of money and cant sell iphone marked items in Mexico. pure win.

 

[mew4ever23]

Wait, didn't a lot of DS games use this in some fashion? I'm hoping the ruling here is: "Why the hell did the patent office let you do this?"

Has SEGA Japan gone a bit mad recently?

Yesterday they started a DMCA campaign on youtube channels seemingly to purge all reference to the Shining series from unofficial sources.

Wrong, it's been going on for the past few weeks. And the joke's kinda on them, TotalBiscuit's actually boycotting all things Sega on his channel now, in protest. His take is that they're trying to kill off the old games so people can focus on the new ones.

Proof - https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/275736690704924674

 

[Jorec]

How can they patent a mechanic that's part of the handheld itself? That'd be like for example EA trying to sue Criterion Games over a patent that describes "having a mechanic that allows a character to move around with a control stick."

 

[ritchards]

Next up, the makers of Pong sue Sega for having a "game" that uses a "screen" and a "control".

 

[Sylveria]

I can think of dozens of DS games that use touch screen controls to move...

Anyway, I hope this backfires and costs Sega millions. The company has been slowly dieing for the past decade. It's time to stick a fork in it.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Wonder if they're gonna try and sue Nintendo for doing the same thing with the DS Zelda games?

EDIT: I missed a word...

 

[Royas]

If anyone would have that patent, I'd think it would be the hardware designer, as "moving the character with the touchscreen" is pretty much the whole reason for the DS to exist. Given what a bad precedent this could set, look for Nintendo to explain to Sega that if they EVER want to put games on their system again they'd better back off a bit. I can't think of a patent more chilling for DS game design.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

First the dmca rampage, now this lawsuit...
I think it's official; Sega has gone completely insane.

 

[Roxas1359]

Sega of Japan seems to have lost all of their brain cells recently. First the Shining Force take down, which they still have answered for which makes them look bad, and now this. It seems that companies are getting even stupider with each passing day, what is going on here? Is there a need to hire idiots for your PR team or something?

Wonder if they're try and sue Nintendo for doing the same thing with the DS Zelda games?

They'd be even stupider to go after Nintendo for that. Nintendo usually always wins their lawsuits, only a handful I can think of when they actually lost, and they have access to way better lawyers. This is honestly why patent laws need to be redone because of idiotic actions being taken.

 

[Zeckt]

This is it, sega killed their image and any past respect by picking on a company that actually makes GOOD games. Sega should just go die in a corner quietely.

 

[elilupe]

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Your avatar perfectly sums up my feelings about what Sega is doing here.