Several Publishers Sued for Infringing 3D Patent 358
jok writes "According to a story on GameDaily, law firm McKool Smith is suing several publishers for infringing their patent on a "Method and Apparatus for Spherical Planning", filed in 1988. Among the companies being sued are several big names, such as Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal, Sega."
uspto (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Patents Run Out, Right? (Score:3, Informative)
Panning, not Planning (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Patents Run Out, Right? (Score:5, Informative)
As TRIPS agreement declares, the term of an issued patent is twenty years from earliest claimed filing date. In the United States, for applications filed prior to June 8, 1995, the patent term is seventeen years from the issue date. For applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, the term is twenty years from the earliest claimed filing date. The rules for patents in force and pending at the transition date (June 8, 1995) are significantly more complicated but grant the patentee whichever term is longer.
Not sued by McKool (Score:5, Informative)
For those who find it odd that a law firm would own such a patent, they don't. The editors managed to munge this somehow... a quick trip to the patent database here [uspto.gov] shows that th epatent is currently assigned to Tektronix, which makes a bit more sense. As an old, slowly dying company, Tektronix is doing what many companies do and seeking to "monetize their intellectual property assets", which unfortunately involves suing the living bejezus out of everyone in sight.
From the patent (Score:5, Informative)
1. A three-dimensional panning method comprising the steps of:
storing applied graphic information representing a three-dimensional object in a first three-dimensional coordinate modeling space;
defining a second three-dimensional coordinate space as a viewing space from which the object may be viewed, the viewing space being movable at a selected radial distance around a selected reference point in the modeling space;
inputting and storing further information including panning information specifying a position from which to view the object;
moving the viewing space to the specified position in response to the panning information, effecting a transform of the coordinates of the object to the viewing space and to a two-dimensional coordinate screen space; and
displaying a two-dimensional image of the transformed coordinates, providing a view of the object from the panned-to-position.
2. The method of claim 1 where the step of moving the viewing space includes the step of orienting said viewing space with respect to the object, by varying at least one of pitch, yaw, and roll attitudes of said viewing space.
3. The method of claim 1 where the step of inputting further information includes the step of identifying a center of projection relative to the specified view position.
4. The method of claim 1 where the step of inputting further information includes the step of specifying a radial distance at which the object may be viewed.
5. The method of claim 1 where the step of inputting further information includes the step of specifying viewing window size as a degree of magnification of the displayed image.
6. The method of claim 1 where the step of inputting further information includes the step of specifying one of parallel and perspective transforms.
7. Apparatus for performing a three-dimensional panning operation, comprising:
memory means for storing entered information including applied graphic and panning information and a control program, the graphic information representing a three-dimensional object in a first three-dimensional coodinate modeling space;
input means for entering information including panning information for panning to a selected position from which to view the object;
processing means coupled to the input and memory means, and responsive to the panning information and execution of the program, for defining a second three-dimensional coordinate space as a viewing space from which the object may be observed, and for moving the viewing space, a selected radial distance around a selected reference point in the modeling space, to the selected position, effecting a transform of the coordinates of the object to the viewing space and to a two-dimensional coordinate screen space; and
means for displaying a two-dimensional image of the transformed coordinates, providing a view of the object from the panned-to position.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the processing means includes a means for orienting the viewing space with respect to the object, by varying at least one of pitch, yaw, and roll attitudes of said viewing space.
9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the input means includes a means for identifying a center of projection relative to the selected view position.
10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the input mean includes a means for specifying a radial distance at which the object may be viewed.
11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the input means includes a means for specifying a view window size as a degree of magnification of the displayed image.
12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the input means includes a means for specifying one of parallel and perspective transforms.
Re:Patents Run Out, Right? (Score:5, Informative)
There are "maintenance fees" required to keep it alive during that whole time (due at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years from issuance), but you don't get to "renew" for another 20. At least not in the US. And not anywhere else in the world that I know of, either.
Re:Any idea what games they're talking about? (Score:1, Informative)
As I understand it, they claim that any game where you can rotate the camera around your character is covered, so just about any 3rd person game. And any hardware that performs this, so graphics card manufacturers and makers of video game consoles are also being sued. They are sure shooting for the moon on this one.
Another failure of the 'obviousness' test (Score:5, Informative)
The thing we ought to, as responsible slashdotters, push on the USPTO is not even "prior art" as most of the crowd pushes on, but the "unobvious to one skilled in the art" clause. Anyone who deals with coordinate transforms - in physics, graphics, or whatever, would have come up with the use of matrix manipulations to view graphics information based on viewer position. The other half of this "invention" is manipulating the viewpoints in a manner which emulates reality - basically it's a patent for an interface which is the same as you or I walking around an object to get a different vantage point.
That aside, there is the issue that 3D graphics have been out in the mainstream for over 10 years and nobody brought this patent up. I hope they're going to lose on statute of limitations.
Perhaps we should draft and file a Friend of the Court brief?
Prior art - 1983 (Score:5, Informative)
Toward the end of the book - the entire first claim is provided - all subroutines necessary for panning.
Hell - I even did my first 3d movie in tectronix 4010 escape sequences using them (moving around a cube - it looked like the cube was rotating except for the offset center).
Re:Vertical business model (Score:5, Informative)
>where/how did a law firm get this patent?
I am the "inventor" of three patents, yet receive no proceeds from them. Well, I did receive a nice salary and some share options...
It's called work. You sign intellectual property papers, then they start telling you what to do and pay you for it. In the course of your job, you invent things. The company pays for all the lawyering, and processing fees. Sometimes, the company licenses or assigns/sells the rights to other companies. One of those might very well be a law firm.
When the bubble popped, and I dot-bombed, our intellectual property law firm expressed interest in one of my patents. But it eventually sold to another company for $60k. Which with any other liquidated assets went to the VCs.
But hey, I'm not bitter or anything!
Re:Waiting 16 years is ridiculous (Score:1, Informative)
Re:That's what I was thinking! (Score:2, Informative)
Guess what? The reason there are a lot of law suits is that there are a lot of scumbag businesses out there who will continue to cheat people unless they are sued.
The answer is not some sort of prohibitive "legal reform." The answer is to turn the Republicans, the party of sleazy scumbag businesses (Enron anybody?) - out of office.
1988?? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Prior art - 1983 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:uspto (Score:3, Informative)
Sublogic Flight Simulator or Stellar 7 (Score:1, Informative)
Also, more obviously, with FlightSim, when the view is taken outside the Plane with the camera pointed at the plane. I don't think this was in the first few Flight Simulators, but I'm pretty sure it was before 1988. Flight Simulator started in 1979.
http://simflight.com/~fshistory/fsh/index.htm
Re:Prior art - 1983 (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Another failure of the 'obviousness' test (Score:2, Informative)
Re:But its legal if you use AMD! (Score:4, Informative)
1. A three-dimensional panning method comprising the steps of:
That is a claim. That is what determines if you are infringing or not. Forget the sepcification since that is just telling you of one way of practicing the invention. Note that the claim does not mention who makes your CPU or what display technology you are using. Therefore, it isn't "legal" if you use and AMD processor.
-truth
Re:Another failure of the 'obviousness' test (Score:2, Informative)
Although I believe there are some books written in the 1970's (and referred to in the parent application) that refer to the fundamentals of computer graphics. I would bet money that they detail the matrix functions in one of those books. BTW, when did Microprose first start on FlightSim 1.0? Let alone any cad program used by Boeing or some other aviation/military firm.
From the Google answers:
Sir William Rowan Hamilton [st-and.ac.uk]Google Answers article on 3d Math [google.com]
Re:That's what I was thinking! (Score:2, Informative)
Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira married John Heinz III in 1966. John Heinz's family owned large shares of the HJ Heinz ketchup company, but his father (Jack Heinz) was the last to play an active role in management. In the late 1980s, the family diversified their assets, and divested themselves of most of their HJ Heinz shares.
John Heinz entered politics in 1971 when he successfully ran for the House, (as a Republican.) In 1976, he entered the Senate, and served until his death in 1991. Subsequently, Theresa Heinz inherited much of John Heinz's fortune, the remainder devolving to various charitable foundations and family trusts.
In 1995, Theresa Heinz married Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Patent Law Of The People's Republic of China (Score:4, Informative)
It's an interesting read that demolishes Slashdot myths. Successful world traders tend to share certain values. You'll find english language links here to the Chinese law of copyright, trademark, etc.
Re:Patents Run Out, Right? (Score:2, Informative)
Nevermind, I misread. Patents filed before June 8, 1995 go by their issue date, which in this case was March 29, 1988.
In other words, the suits are quite timely given that the the patent expires on March 29, 2005.
Re:Prior art - 1983 (Score:2, Informative)
Spinning high-dimensional data clouds has been popular in Statistics since the 1970's. I wrote a program to do this in 1982 on a character terminal. (fortran on a microvax).
FISHERKELLER, M. A., FRIEDMAN, J. H. and TUKEY, J. W. (1974a). PRIM-9, an interactive multidimensional data display and analysis sy stem, 1974. Sound film, 25 minutes. Bin-88 Productions, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Video tape available through the ASA Video Library.
Descartes (Score:2, Informative)
Euclid didn't work with analytic geometry, which associates numbers to points in space. You'd have to look to the Descartes estate for that.
And they're not suing CAD vendors because CAD vendors have a chance of being large enough to win by exhaustion.
Re:That's what everybody is thinking. (Score:3, Informative)
My first thought was "why the hell would a LAW FIRM file patent relating to digital image processing"?
They probably bought a bunch of patents with the intention of filing infringment lawsuits.
My second thought was "why would they wait over 16 YEARS to defend their patent"?
They had to wait until someone was making money off of something similar enough to be the target of a lawsuit. You can sue anyone for anything, but lawyers are smart enough to know that there's no point in suing someone who doesn't have enough money to pay to settle or to pay a judgement.
Typo in Article? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Patents Run Out, Right? (Score:1, Informative)
And yes, I'd shoot these lawyers.