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."
That's what I was thinking! (Score:5, Interesting)
"Common sense says it's ridiculous, and from a moral standpoint it's outrageous," anonymous employee at major publisher.
Patents Run Out, Right? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is why software patents (Score:5, Interesting)
ILM could be next (Score:1, Interesting)
Sounds like the 2 1/2 D methods pioneered by ILM and used by nearly every compositing/post house on the planet.
Ruh-roh.
Some day, lawyers will be gone (Score:2, Interesting)
Why only game publishers? (Score:2, Interesting)
Or are they counting on the game companies to simply settle?
Get ready for the ultimate submarine attack (Score:5, Interesting)
China's economy is booming precisely because they don't have any of this ridiculous patenting.
Once China has the upper hand, it could turn around, rifle through the patents, scoop up all the ones owned by anyone willing to sell them and launch an attack against the remaining copmanies with them.
Forget missles, baby! Here come the patent-wars!
Waiting 16 years is ridiculous (Score:3, Interesting)
Isn't there some provision that says the patent holder must try to minimize damages? Or am I thinking of something else (trademark?)
Re:Vertical business model (Score:3, Interesting)
Just what we need, lawyers with a hobby. I am picturing Matlock in the back room bent over a C64 and a cup of coffee tweaking code at 2:00 AM after studying a stack of leagal briefs.
I am surprised it has taken so long for a law firm to get into this business. Lawyers have a parasitic relationship with society. Symbiotic relationships do not feel like someone is ripping the host's small intestines out their ear.
Re:From the patent (Score:2, Interesting)
When I've read an article about BSP as an early high-school kid, I invented what this patent does without any outside help, using just school-level math (a math profile class, but still). And I'm not anywhere even close to a genius.
What they have patented is just the basic perspective and rotation.
Quite strange... (Score:3, Interesting)
And also any of the companies that develop the really serious quantum / particle physics and medical scan 3D data visualization software.
It's obvious that these guys just want to make a big scene.
Re:Waiting 16 years is ridiculous (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:That's what I was thinking! (Score:1, Interesting)
"It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges tends rater to obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith."
(Atlantic Works v. Brady, 1017 U.S. 192, 200 (1882)).
Re:Another failure of the 'obviousness' test (Score:3, Interesting)
The concept of the "graphics" card has been around since at least 1981.
The original IBM PC had no on-board graphics, and you could choose between an MDA (text only, monochrome), or a CGA (640x200x2 or 320x240x4, or text: 8 color). It may predate the PC, but IIRC, it was considered revolutionary at the time.
Your last sentence is also wrong. You had to change both your monitor and graphics card to go from EGA to VGA.
EGA used a 9-pin connector with digital level outputs. VGA used a 15-pin connector with analog level outputs. Thus the need to swap monitors -- unless you were using something like a NEC MultiSync, in which case, you kept the monitor and opened your system unit and swapped the graphics card.
Re:That's what I was thinking! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Yikes! (Score:3, Interesting)
Blake
SPAM and lawsuits... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just got this spam about two days ago.. Maybe it is related..
------------------
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Mod parent up!! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:patent on spherical planning (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe they should go after those folks who still publish paper integration tables. Have we all paid the proper fees to solve the double integral of [n d(theta) d(phi)]?
Re:That's what I was thinking! (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Submarine patents. A company should be allowed at most x month to file a lawsuit, when a third party infriges. In case it is filed after that delay, the company should prove that it had no "reasonable" way of knowing the patent was infriged before x month prior to the filing of the lawsuit.
2. Stupid patents with well-known prior art. A company should be liable of "malpractice" (or something else) if it cannot produce proof that they did a thorough research of prior art before filing the patent.
In clear, the lawyer shouldn't be at risk here, or they would accept to do that only for huge amount of money and little people could not afford them any longer (or less than now). But the client should be held responsible of its actions.
Letting a well-known infriger base its business on your patent should automatically void him of any threat regarding that patent after 12 or 18 month.
Filing a patent when you perfectly know there are piles of prior art out there should be made illegal, and thus punished.