A Dutch Company Says it Owns the Patent on No Man's Sky's Procedural Generation Algorithm

[Infernal Lawyer]

Hang on, I'm confused. Some people are saying "can't copyright formulas", but on the other hand the article clearly says "Genicap owns the copyright to the formula" and "The game's developers confirmed that they use the forumula". So... basically the issue is "yes, the game is using the formula, but we're not sure if that matters because we're not sure if that's something you can copyright?

That said, Genicap seems to be handle this reasonably instead of heading straight for a lawsuit... of course, judging by the confusion from before, it seems to me that it's less out of politeness and more because they're not sure if they have a case (though I guess that's better than threatening Hello Games with legal action and hoping they don't call their bluff).

 

[Naldan]

Can someone tell me how patents on algorithm in any shape, their use etc., is justified?

Ah well. I live in Germany where a bank has a trademark on the colour red. Not even any red anymore, Santander lost to Sparkasse here, even though they used a different shade of red.

Patterns and copyright laws are the only reason I imagine a nuclear war could be beneficial. Fuck. These.

 

[RaikuFA]

My money's on patent troll.

 

[Politrukk]

I didn't even know it is even possible to patent an algorithm.

I highly doubt they would attempt to sabotage the launch, probably would just ask for a small slice of the profits or a fixed ammount of money.

Ask google.

 

[hermes]

Checking on the patent information, this doesn't seem like a patent troll. Basically, this guy created the algorithm, patented and created an enterprise that monetize it. He has even regularly kept the information updated, so it is not like they sat on it doing nothing.

He also seems reasonable in the way to approach this. Since it is based on a published formula, they are likely going to ask Hello Games to show them the code. If they only used the formula and created their own implementation, they are safe (you can patent an algorithm, you can't patent a formula); if not, they are likely going to have to pay some licencing fee like developers do all the time with different middleware providers.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

My money's on patent troll.

Nope. As Hermes said, the patent info is legit. I wouldn't consider it a patent troll so much as a convenient outreach attempt.

"Hey, we know you're putting out a vidya that uses our math, and we'd like to take a gander at your code 'cause we'd like to put a vidya together on our own. Seeing as the math's ours, we feel this is a reasonable request."

I doubt this'll go anywhere serious - probably an out-of-court settlement - but you never know. Does anyone know where Sony's offered assistance stops?

 

[Strazdas]

People don't realize that when major companies like Disney seem to be enforcing copyright law against little guys that they are actually just keeping their copyright active by challenging all uses they find (even fair use, it seems). Failing to defend your copyright can actually lose you future exclusivity to it.

If the parent company isn't a patent troll and also isn't in a competing market then this conversation is just necessary for reason #2.

I wonder if the company could just not sell their game in Europe then, if the US doesn't allow algorithm/formula copyrighting. I cannot imagine how shitty the world would be if people couldn't even use Einstein's E=mc^2 because he patented it or something.

This is not true for Patents [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not-require-companies-tirelessly-censor-internet] and not true for Copyright either. You do not loose the copyright by not acting on an infringement you notice. This is a lie-excuse patent trolls use to sue companies.

Futhermore, Disney is the worst example given that they openly lobbied and purchased laws extending copyright by 45+ years solely to "protect" their mickey mouse copyright [http://artlawjournal.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-copyright-law/] because they are creatively bancrupt and have to hold onto something that should have been in public domain as part of cultural herritage decades ago.

And yes, your last sentence is exactly why there has to be a relative short expiry date on patents and copyright of works, because this current trend of keeping it longer is hurting EVERYONE.

 

[Einspanner]

My money's on patent troll.

There was some debate over this on Hacker News when this story broke a few days ago. On one hand you can't patent a mathematical formula or discovery, but you can patent an application of it. Their patent mentions a lot of things, but not specifically games. Still, it's not an invalid patent, but it's a patent from the EU courts that unlikely to survive in the wild. The timing of this is also fairly suspicious, and smacks of someone looking for a quick payout, which is the hallmark of patent "trolling".

 

[deadish]

This is... not strictly true. There are some companies out there that try to thrive by sueing the competition to death with idiotic patents. Nvidea and Apple are examples of this.

Nvidia sure. Apple ... face it Samsung was practically cloning their phones looks-wise.

No one else got sued by Apple but Samsung. Everyone else had the integrity to create their own industrial designs instead of trying to piggyback of Apple's fame and cause brand confusion.