Capcom is suing Tecmo-Koei

[Dragonbums]

....wait. They are suing for expansion packs?

Does Capcom even have the money to sue?

Because if they are going to sue Techmo for that....well, Capcom has a very nice line of devs East and West to sue as well.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's not for expansions, but for "remixing" content.

I'm voting "lacks information". As the article puts it, "the description of the patent?s full contents remains unclear".

I'm going with shitty journalism because they should do their research first. If this is a patent in Japan, there is a searchable patent database at the Japanese patent office's site. They were capable of translating the site, so doing some actual freaking journalism wouldn't be so bad.

Okay, how can someone be this stupid with patent law? The way the article phrases it is vague and apparently it only applies to the concept of expansion packs. But the way that is described, it is like Apple suing a bakery because they use apples in pie.

It's closer to Apple suing people for using "i" in their products years before Apple made that "innovation." Which they've done. I know that's trademark law and not patent law, but it's a closer analogue.

Ever wondered why modern video games seem so stale? No, it's not because of mass marketed AAA dudebro games. It's because large developers have a stranglehold on all but the most broad game mechanics.

Patents - Grinding innovation to a halt since the 1980's.

Yes, thankfully patents from the 1980s are still valid today.

Of course, if that were true, then there would be a dearth of dudebro shooters now like there was a dearth of platformers in the 80s, fighting games in the 90s, and so on.

Another problem with that is the patents are so vague, that it fools the patent officer into granting is despite similar concepts being in use for decades.

Considering vague patents are generally useless and prior exhibition is a defense against patent infringement (not to mention one of the major requirements of a patent is novelty and another is non-obviousness), no on both counts.

A larger problem would be that people conflate "things I don't understand" with "vague," which is a subset of one of the big issues with patent law: "I don't understand it." People tend to point to exceptions rather than rules, and that's a terrible way to establish pattern.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Capcom is kind of like that cool middle aged guy down the street who used to play football with the little kids and was friends with your parents.

But now he's lonely, single, and addicted to cocaine.

What happened Capcom? (aside from, like, everything)

 

[FPLOON]

Is this some weird way for Capcom to ask Koei to make them their own Dynasty Warriors-type game or something?

Other than that, I struggle to see any positives to this playing out in general...

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

That sounds like patenting the postal system, typing up minutes from hand-written notes or other things that are functions of a greater need. Inserting a disc into a console is standard practice, patenting parts of the process where one disc effects another is ludicrous.

Off hand, I can already think of all the Mass Effects as doing that, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (vs the original game), The Witcher 2, Dragon Age II, Dead Space 3, Forza 3 and 4 (bonus cars for having saves from previous games) and more.

Maybe they're testing the waters to see if the copyright claim gets upheld, and if it does, then they'll pounce on everybody that's ever released a game that adds to and/or draws from an older one.

 

[gigastar]

Goddamnit Capcom.

...still not going to stop me from buying Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate though.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

From the article: "According to the lawsuit, Capcom filed a patent back in 2002 that involves a function that lets you acquire new content by combining an existing game with another piece of software...Since the patent was filed back in 2002, it likely covers the concept of using expansion discs in conjunction with the original disc of a game, in order to unlock content, as was the case with Samurai Warriors : Xtreme Legends."

Wait, even that's too vague. Many games over the past 20 years have let you unlock something like a bonus costume, gun, or level, if you have a save file from a previous game (just noticed Danny beat me to this). And of course an expansion pack will require the use of the original full game since the definition of an expansion pack is a piece of software that enhances another piece of software and cannot function on its own. Even the Wikipedea [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_pack] entry on expansion packs mention things like GTA: London, 1969 requiring juggling between the original GTA disc and London's disc to play the game on a PS1 or Sonic 3 and Knuckles requiring both carts to play the full game, but the S3&K example really blurs what is new content since some music tracks and items were changed when the games were locked together. The three extra super forms definitely were new content that could not be accessed without both cartridges. That's examples year

I think Capcom is trying desperate attempt to get free cash that will only put them deeper in the hole. Maybe they should just sell or license some of their IPs like Megaman if they don't have the funds to make a decent game for him instead of letting him sit on a shelf collecting dust. They have to have at least a little bit of royalties coming their way for Rock's appearance in the new Smash Bros. Maybe they can do that with other properties or more Megaman? The idea can't be as much of a risk as trying to be a patent troll.

Right, that technology has been on disk for PC since the 80's. Even that example you gave for Sonic and Knuckles for cartridges was available in 1994. I don't know what Capcom hopes to get out of this. Even if it does look like it can go to court, there's no way bigger publishers will let them get off easily for fear of the case being used to give leverage for future claims.