Whatever happened to actually making an invention or product before patenting it? Rather then just a concept that you can sue people over for making because you don't actually know how?
Activision Sued Over Online Multiplayer in Call of Duty, WoW
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
Oh you sneaky bastard... What if I have a dream about "1"?Vothriller said:
And welcome to the escapist!
Since you are not "using" it in any logical sense or in the real world, I'll allow it. Hey, I can also sue top tens now!Celtic_Kerr said:
And thank you.
This sounds rather weird. Weren't the patents reviewed and granted only if multiple area specialists agree upon it being something completely not obvious? Databases at use by multiple people using input output devices has been done like... since the computer was invented.
bah, I anticipated this ridiculous situation coming a year ago, so I patented the concept of "taking out patents on stupid things in the off-chance that someone will try to do the same thing without knowing". I think those guys owe me a stack of cash.
Ima start suing people for the following.
Using eyes to ascertain things about their environment.
Using hands to change the position of objects.
Using their lungs to manage in flow of oxygen into their blood stream.
Using letters "A" through "P" in both capital and non-capital form.
Patent Trolling.
Using eyes to ascertain things about their environment.
Using hands to change the position of objects.
Using their lungs to manage in flow of oxygen into their blood stream.
Using letters "A" through "P" in both capital and non-capital form.
Patent Trolling.
This is only slightly petty. I should imagine that this will go through. Shortly after I should imagine that there will be laws in place which will prevent vague patents like that from being made.
I hope the lawsuit fails simply because they took so long to realize that other people may actually use something like THE INTERNET to allow people play together. Would this "patent" cover LAN parties as well? Maybe they should sue Bill Gates and Al Gore as well for their own contributions for the theft of the "patent" as well and make the chain of greed complete.
How far will the gaming industry regress if the case succeeds? Small companies would be unwilling to consider multiplayer options because that's even more money to set aside in case another lawsuit pops up. MMOs that aren't simply shut down may end up becoming more expensive as their parent companies try to recover the monetary loss as well as paying for royalties to some outside group. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but who the heck is this Walker Digital group anyways?
Wouldn't it just be ironic if the Patent Office, or whoever runs the stuff, goes through their records and fails to find anything under the Walker Digital name covering "Multiplayer Tournaments" or even anything in their name at all? That would be a drama worth watching.
How far will the gaming industry regress if the case succeeds? Small companies would be unwilling to consider multiplayer options because that's even more money to set aside in case another lawsuit pops up. MMOs that aren't simply shut down may end up becoming more expensive as their parent companies try to recover the monetary loss as well as paying for royalties to some outside group. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but who the heck is this Walker Digital group anyways?
Wouldn't it just be ironic if the Patent Office, or whoever runs the stuff, goes through their records and fails to find anything under the Walker Digital name covering "Multiplayer Tournaments" or even anything in their name at all? That would be a drama worth watching.
Actually the human genome patent I was talking about was a company that patented a gene that was used to detect breast cancer, not the process used, but the gene itself, and were attempting to change anyone using that gene (in any medical test) licensing fees; yes the patent was invalidated, but only after several years and a court case, it should never have been granted in the first damn place.Erynn said:
It's one thing for judges to invalidate plainly absurd patents, but they shouldn't have too, because the system shouldn't grant patents for stupid systems. That's why I say the system needs an overhaul, and what the hell is up with the length of IP now? It's just plain stupid.
Congratulations, Walker Digital. You just made Activision look really damn un-greedy. This is quite difficult, but when you claim that 24 of their games are not their own you make yourselves look goddamn stupid.
There is no way they could win against all those titles and companies.
Even if it were an acceptable patent, it would never go through, not with the amount of power and money those companies have.
Even if it were an acceptable patent, it would never go through, not with the amount of power and money those companies have.
So basically they've patented a function of the internet that they didn't even make (all they did was use the internet, they didn't make anything). Never thought I'd say this, but I hope Activision rips these guys apart.