Activision Sued Over Online Multiplayer in Call of Duty, WoW

[Assassin Xaero]

I think this tops "Activision suing Brutal Legend for it being 'competition' to Guitar Hero" for stupid reasons to sue...

 

[Starke]

Weren't online tournaments around long before 2002 anyway?

Yeah, it's called "prior art", and it will undermine any patent claim. Off hand my first suggestion would be something like Ultima Online or maybe Unreal.

 

[Covarr]

Weren't online tournaments around long before 2002 anyway?

Yeah, it's called "prior art", and it will undermine any patent claim. Off hand my first suggestion would be something like Ultima Online or maybe Unreal.

Activision's lawyers know this, and in fact for this reason they will likely not settle, not if they can spend much less just getting it thrown out.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Starke]

At least they went after someone with money first.

I don't know if Doom/Quake predates their "discovery" ... but I'm pretty sure something like xpilot would.

They do, They filed in 2002, Doom was 1993. I'm not completely certain about the architecture involved but they should satisfy "prior art".

EDIT: I take that back, none of the FPSs would satisfy it because they didn't actually use centralized architecture for their multi-player until relatively recently. Any MMO before 2002 that had PVP and kept track of character's on any kind of leader board (visible or otherwise) would however.

EDIT 2: A quick search suggests that Dark Age of Camelot would satisfy the definition provided in the patent, and was released in 2001.

I thought patents were supposed to be specific, not so vague you can sue people over anything.

They are. The sad fact is that most people who work in the field are lawyers, not programmers, so when a company comes along and claims to have patented... let's say "a dynamic asynchronous data upload/download data transfer system", or in this case their tournament system, none of the attorneys involved know enough on the subject to realize that the patent is far too vague, what's worse is that it will take a lawsuit to reveal this, as most lawyers looking at that wouldn't realize just how vague the patent really is.

 

[Sephychu]

Can I patent respiration? Or cake?
Aren't patents meant to be specific to prevent exactly this from happening?
Stop suing each other.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I'm going to patent stuff. Just...stuff. Then I'm going to sue the pants off anybody who profits off stuff. I might as well grab things too while I'm at it.

 

[TheFPSisDead]

If that's possible, I'm gonna go patent the air.

LOL

 

[AudienceOfOne1]

Well I'll patent stupidity and die a very rich man.

 

[aristos_achaion]

Weren't online tournaments around long before 2002 anyway?

Like, ah, Unreal Tournament? (1999) I'm pretty sure that Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (1997) and Halo (2001) also fall into that category. The issue is that I doubt there're any scholarly papers specifically dealing with the subject (as there would be for most inventions), so the issue of prior art could get weird.

 

[Jackhorse]

Zynga can fall, fate of casuals is not relevant to me.

Rorschach read that last sentance out for me and I'm afraid of what you might do to the patent trolls now.
They won't manage but at least it'll give the judge a laugh, anyone want to guess how much theyre going to try and make?

 

[WabbitTwacks]

Well, I patent the sun!

somebody did that already:
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpps/news/offbeat/spanish-woman-claims-she-now-owns-sun-dpgonc-20101126-gc_10808147

and there should be a law against patenting things that are already in use. that is just ridiculous. i should patent gardening or figure skating.

 

[Starke]

Well, I patent the sun!

somebody did that already:
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpps/news/offbeat/spanish-woman-claims-she-now-owns-sun-dpgonc-20101126-gc_10808147

and there should be a law against patenting things that are already in use. that is just ridiculous. i should patent gardening or figure skating.

It's already an element of patent law, called "prior art". If someone did it before you filed you're shit out of luck.

 

[Hoplon]

At least they went after someone with money first.

I don't know if Doom/Quake predates their "discovery" ... but I'm pretty sure something like xpilot would.

They do, They filed in 2002, Doom was 1993. I'm not completely certain about the architecture involved but they should satisfy "prior art".

EDIT: I take that back, none of the FPSs would satisfy it because they didn't actually use centralized architecture for their multi-player until relatively recently. Any MMO before 2002 that had PVP and kept track of character's on any kind of leader board (visible or otherwise) would however.

EDIT 2: A quick search suggests that Dark Age of Camelot would satisfy the definition provided in the patent, and was released in 2001.

Wouldn't the first Battle.net [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle.net] satisfy that too? the one created in 1997 by blizzard for diablo, Starcraft may have gotten in on it too, was never a big player of Blizzard games.

 

[moretimethansense]

If that's possible, I'm gonna go patent the air.

I call dibs on the ground. So, maybe you and I don't pay each other?

I call water! Since there's more of it than there is ground. No ships in mah domain! Mwahaha!

I could get in on that bargain

I lay claim to the visible light spectrum.

 

[binvjoh]

Nope, sorry. I patented corporate trolling.

 

[Starke]

At least they went after someone with money first.

I don't know if Doom/Quake predates their "discovery" ... but I'm pretty sure something like xpilot would.

They do, They filed in 2002, Doom was 1993. I'm not completely certain about the architecture involved but they should satisfy "prior art".

EDIT: I take that back, none of the FPSs would satisfy it because they didn't actually use centralized architecture for their multi-player until relatively recently. Any MMO before 2002 that had PVP and kept track of character's on any kind of leader board (visible or otherwise) would however.

EDIT 2: A quick search suggests that Dark Age of Camelot would satisfy the definition provided in the patent, and was released in 2001.

Wouldn't the first Battle.net [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle.net] satisfy that too? the one created in 1997 by blizzard for diablo, Starcraft may have gotten in on it too, was never a big player of Blizzard games.

I hadn't thought about that, but indeed it might.

 

[tseroff]

Well, I patent the sun!

somebody did that already:
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpps/news/offbeat/spanish-woman-claims-she-now-owns-sun-dpgonc-20101126-gc_10808147

and there should be a law against patenting things that are already in use. that is just ridiculous. i should patent gardening or figure skating.

well damn. hmm other ridiculous patents.... I patent stomachs!

 

[Chibz]

Well, I have just patented the human genome sequence. I also own the entire array of genetic diversity for cows, chickens, pigs, and lima beans.

If you use any of these things (Are human or ever buy/eat almost anything) you are infringing on one of my patents and will be sued.

Sorry.

 

[T-Bone24]

I'm going to go patent the idea for television shows. I'll be rich!