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General: More Lawsuits!
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
Paltalk strikes again! In a report over at Boston Globe, we've learned that Paltalk Holdings has filed suit against MMOG bigwigs Turbine, Sony Corp, Blizzard, Jagex, and NCsoft for patent infringement.
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What's the charge, Officer? Well, apparently, Paltalk Holdings purchased a patent from HearMe in 2002 that covers "technologies for sharing data among many connected computers so that all users see the same digital environment". Paltalks angle is that the companies named in the suit are violating their patent due to the data-sharing technologies being used in games like Lord of the Rings Online, or World of Warcraft.
This story wouldn't be a huge deal, given how ridiculous it is, if not for the fact it has been tried before by Paltalk. First, in 2006, against a little company called Microsoft, over the technology being used in Halo 3. Microsoft settled with Paltak mid-trial, which concedes some validity to Paltalks claims, setting precedent and ensuring it will be tough for companies like Turbine or NCsoft to challenge them.
Via The Boston Globe.
Comments
Well if Microsoft backed down...I see no hope for the other companies..Look like Paltalk will win..
Some people rob you at gun point..Others will rob you at "Ball Point Pen"
1. Love the image
2. It's really sad that the courts protect stupidity. Never mind the fact that some of these companies have been using the technology LONG before some moron let them copyright this.
Hey, has anyone copyrighted "dining out in an established facility" yet? Because you could make a killing there...
lol lot of those company sued were online before that patent lol
i love freaking u.s.a. lol
I just patented "taking air into one's lungs by flexing one's diaphram and expelling remaining gasses afterwards.", so I'm going to be watching you folks like a hawk.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
there are closet lawyer asll over usa doing just that patenting
where i live there was this company they made hockey stick for nhl
some of the best.they had a patent
some litte genius out of that company made an aluminium handle a revolution back then
.not long after a guy filled a patent for the exact same thing
company yelled foul went to court against that guy
and company lost .why? because the new hockey stick from the newbe ,the guy filled the aluminium with foam
yep he got a patent for that and could manufacture that new hockey stick
later the big company closed down . and newbe is still selling his new hockey stick
lol
this system doesnt work
if you dont make anything and you use the law to close down big company that hire 1000 and 1000 of employe
its not right
and i bet his thing will be released next year a patent is good for what 7 years 8 years
judge should reject the case
Nothing new. The whole country runs on lawsuits, killing off companies, robbing their money... just to be robbed by another company shortly after.
Rince and repeat.
This company just shows it can't get anymore pathetic than that.
They are nothing more then lazy parasites. Just a bunch of laywers that bought this patent, just to go sue companies and robbing them from cash.
Funny thing is, I just watched a similar lawsuit between a specific form of lighting.
Company "A" developed and manufactured a suitable light for it's intended purpose.
Company "B" comes forward and says, we already patent the "idea" of useing such a light for that purpose.
Courts ruled for Company "B".
Company "A" went out of business, only to find out later that the internet had a "how to" discussion about if this lighting would work for such an application before company "B" filed the patent, making the patent void due to the idea being introduced to the public for free by a third party.
So goes to show, if you have an idea, keep it to yourself until you actually patent it. Ofcourse this knowledge was too late to save Company "A" but hey, maybe they should sue their lawyers for incompetence?
Not so nice guy!
Yes I'm guessing all Turbine has to do is point to Asheron's Call which released in 99 and then paltalk won't have a leg to stand on. Same with Sony for EQ, I don't know when those other companies made their first MMOs. Unless Blizzard gets to use it's non MMO multiplayer games as proof.
Doesn't really matter if Microsoft settled. That's what they do, they have enough money to throw away. The fact still remains that any claim to "Data-sharing" or "Virtual Worlds" or "Chat clients" should all fall under previous art, making any patent in those categories void. The patent office workers must be a bunch of retards, or they do absolutely nothing but put an approved stamp on papers like the "Drivetime Guy"...Anyone know how to get a job there?
P.S. I hold the patent for "the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components, to a form that can be absorbed, for instance, by a blood stream." So noone better be digesting food!
What an incredible abuse of the justice system--yet, unfortunately, very typical.
Can't say I would mind if those companies were shut down.
You know, my dad actually suggested filing patents on all the gaming ideas I had to improve what I was playing all these year. I guess I should've been a little less honest about it all.
who knows, maybe with all their money they will win they might make a good mmo..... hmmmm
They don't really have to point to any specific MMO...
Any semi-intellegent company sued over something like this is going to contact Randy Farmer or someone like him. Who actually have "prior art" dating back to 1985... from a little project made for Lucas Arts called Habitat.
He already had an article up about the idiots that filed Suit againt NCSoft.
Back "in the day" they didn't patent these technologies because no one thought they were really worth anything. Farmer actually discussies this directly in many articles he's written. I think it would piss me off pretty heavily if someone came along decade later and claimed to have invented "my work".
One of the main issues he pointed out with the US Legal system is there is no "down" side to filing a lawsuit. In other countries if you bring something like this to court and lose you are held liable for the cost incurred by the person/people or company you filed suit on.
What they really need to do in the US is to have something like that. If you can't cover the liability the lawfirm who represented you should be held liable. Then they should permanently disbar everyone working there. (as well as take them out behind the building and put two in their head but I'm just a bit extreme there I guess).
Crap like this clogs up the systems and wastes millions of dollars .. for just that... crap.
This is pathetic, patents were introduced to protect people from just this sort of thing. To allow a small time guy to make something in his garage and be able to sell it without having major companies with endless amounts of money silence him and steal his work for themselves. It seems that greed always finds a way though.
I have a feeling we will be seeing more of this to come. I noticed Aion has its PvPvE listed as RvR a couple of times, most likely from the westernization team not realizing it when translating stuff over. How long before EA catches wind and either makes them remove it or sues them for 4534943698659324659 dollars. Hey they gotta make up for whatever money they spent purchasing mythic and launching warhammer, right? Why not have someone else pay for their incompetence? (As if we the consumers didn't already)
All of YOU are in violation of my patent that states "using a connected medium (such as the internet) to share thoughts, ideas, editorial, or information with other people via a text based interface!"
SUE SUE!
Looks to be the successful companies that are the main targets. Since microsoft settled maybe they figure the big guys will settle out of court and they can pick up some easy cash.
Idiots who hand out these patents.
They don't really have to point to any specific MMO...
Any semi-intellegent company sued over something like this is going to contact Randy Farmer or someone like him. Who actually have "prior art" dating back to 1985... from a little project made for Lucas Arts called Habitat.
He already had an article up about the idiots that filed Suit againt NCSoft.
Back "in the day" they didn't patent these technologies because no one thought they were really worth anything. Farmer actually discussies this directly in many articles he's written. I think it would piss me off pretty heavily if someone came along decade later and claimed to have invented "my work".
One of the main issues he pointed out with the US Legal system is there is no "down" side to filing a lawsuit. In other countries if you bring something like this to court and lose you are held liable for the cost incurred by the person/people or company you filed suit on.
What they really need to do in the US is to have something like that. If you can't cover the liability the lawfirm who represented you should be held liable. Then they should permanently disbar everyone working there. (as well as take them out behind the building and put two in their head but I'm just a bit extreme there I guess).
Crap like this clogs up the systems and wastes millions of dollars .. for just that... crap.
the sewer that lose should automaticly pay to the opponent the amount he or she ask as a copyright owner
so say they ask 1 billion they should pay one billion if they lose that way you wouldnt see all these end of term copyright lausuit before copyright ends lol
I want to say that I read this exact issue somewhere, either here on MMORPG or another site. Not sure if EA/Mythic has done anything in regards to a lawsuit against NCSoft or not about this whole RvR issue, but I'm pretty sure I saw something pertaining to the topic somewhere. Personally I laugh at the whole lawsuit issue and think that more than likely about 90% of them are just a waste of time and energy that could be put to better use, but I don't see any changes coming to pass any time soon. I do agree with the poster about the whole "accountability" issue and figure that if this was ever instated here in the states the amount of bogus and stupid lawsuits would drop drastically
Edit: Another thing that just occurred to me, and I have no law background so I could way out there on this, but if this company is located in NY, how is it that they can get away with posting a lawsuit through a district court in Texas? Shouldn't they be required to post it in the home city or state that they originate from and their company is located in? It seems kind of stupid that someone can take something like this outside of their home area just because this other place might be a bit friendlier towards their plea.
If Gene Simmons of KISS can get away with trademarking "OJ" for Orange Juice, something tells me that the court will allow this to happen...
Someone needs to sue the Patent Office for approving these ridiculous patents. When companies go in business strictly to pursue highly questionable patents it just indicates how broken the system is.
Personally I would think any appeals court would look favorably at throwing out any patent case that comes out of that Texas town because of prejudice.
1. This nation has too many Lawyers looking for clients.
2. The Patent system was designed to protect inventors, however it has gotten out of control when companies can patent genes.
3. Microsoft’s settlement does not mean anything except it was cheaper than fighting the case. It does not set precedent.
4. The companies being sued will find it cheaper to pay extortion than fight the lawsuit in court.
1. This nation has too many Lawyers looking for clients.
2. The Patent system was designed to protect inventors, however it has gotten out of control when companies can patent genes.
3. Microsoft’s settlement does not mean anything except it was cheaper than fighting the case. It does not set precedent.
4. The companies being sued will find it cheaper to pay extortion than fight the lawsuit in court.
"technologies for sharing data among many connected computers so that all users see the same digital environment"
That is vague enough that pretty much all websites on the Internet would fall under it.
I was playing MUDS back in 1994 - 95. One would assume that, in order to patent this kind of stuff, that they would have to show that they came up with the idea pre-launch of all these things. Microsoft has cash to burn..right? So why give in to a patent that could easily be overturned by pointing out any one of the MMO genre games predating the patent?
The patent must have something in it which claims rights prior to the launch of those games...OR...its a specific combination of technologies. I think I read this article back in 2006 and read the patent too. I think this is the one that states the combination of in game chat + data/client packets shared between multiple clients to allow all players to know the location of other players.
I agree with the sentiment that certain things are public domain. I think that EVERYONE who played games of any kind daydreamed about the day when you could play DnD online with friends. First it was MUDs and then Realms and Ultima. Next Gen was everquest and then a flurry of multplayer FPS.
I think the biggest arguement here is that they didn't protect their intellectual property for over a decade...so why are they permitted now?
Take some HUGE name brands for example.
Kleenex did not properly protect their name. So. It is legal to refer to sanitary tissues as Kleenex and not pay them royalties.
Disney and Harley Davidson protected their name like little demons. You've all heard about Disney suing a church for showing little mermaid or some such to their little kids...or painting mickey in their nursery. Since they protected their name from the start, now they have a lot of clout.
These guys, if they are the legitimate owners of the IP, which I doubt, they did not, in any way visible to the world at large, protect their IP until now. Sorry guys, its public domain...get over it!
Currently not playing any MMOrpg --
Lvl 80 paladin WoW