Get a plausible idea, get it legally recognised as yours, and you own it for x many years (depending on type of permit iirc).
It's just abused to buggery by the corporate types out to make money.
Eg, Apple have legally acknowledged they've infringed massively on a patent filed in the 80's by an English chap, yet due to them being a bunch of cocks with money, they've refused to pay him (he's owed millions apparently, the iPod infringes the original patent), but he can't take them to court because he can't afford to spend £xx,000 on a lawyer.
buzzmong wrote:Eg, Apple have legally acknowledged they've infringed massively on a patent filed in the 80's by an English chap, yet due to them being a bunch of cocks with money, they've refused to pay him (he's owed millions apparently, the iPod infringes the original patent), but he can't take them to court because he can't afford to spend £xx,000 on a lawyer.
Microsoft should pay it for him, get their money back from his winnings, and just screw Apple over.
It's also worth noting that they're going after a relatively small company here, not, say, blizzard.
I assume because NC are less likely to defend themselves successfully, so they can have a win under their belt and use that to badger blizzard into paying out.
That had occured to me earlier, I reckon it's for a different reason though.
If it's true and their 1995 version of the patent stands, then they do have somewhat of a solid case barring the fact their product was never widespread and they've waited 8 years or so to file a lawsuit, but if they attack the big people like Blizzard, no matter how solid the case it, the big companies can afford to drag the case out for years and the cost won't bother them, whereas this small company probably can't afford that.
Hell, even if they win against the NCSoft, if they want money of the big boys they'll be going to court, and the big companies won't roll over, they'll dispute all values, figures and reasoning behind everything.
Bit of a lose lose for the people filing the suit.
buzzmong wrote:The patent system is a good system in principle.
Get a plausible idea, get it legally recognised as yours, and you own it for x many years (depending on type of permit iirc).
Still, you shouldn't be able to patent something as general as "online interaction within a game" or "use of Page Up and Page Down keys for moving a Page Up or a Page Down within a document".
Well, technically you can, but you have to do it when you come up with it.
"Page up and page down" would I suspect have been a valid claim, as you'd be tying a specific action to a specific response. "Online interaction within a game" is far too general though methinks, but this company are going down the route of it being a chatroom with a 3d experience alongside it (or visa versa), they were quite specific.
Once you've released something to public domain and you've chosen not to protect it, especially after a large number of years, your patent should (and will be) turned down due to it being in public domain and widespread use.
Some of the recent trolling of patents is quite shocking.
I know in American law that the patent owner has to be proactive in filing suits and C&D orders against patent infringers (case and point: Rickenbacker Incorporated), otherwise if you're not seen to be actively chasing people who've infringed, it's automatically assumed you're not bothered about protecting it and have effectively released it into public domain.
That might happen here, as this is the first suit they've filed since they registered the patent and we've had mmo's for quite a substantial number of years now.
buzzmong wrote:That might happen here, as this is the first suit they've filed since they registered the patent and we've had mmo's for quite a substantial number of years now.
'tis a conspiracy, they've been waiting for a substantial amount of companies to sue for a substantial amount of money.
Or, they could have been building up their own company and waiting until they had sufficient means to file. Somehow I doubt it, though and this is merely a stepping-stone to settling big with Blizzard, although I'd be surprised if they go after Sony (as the article suggests they might) as their own website lists them as a client.
It's possible that this has all come to light as Sony release Home, which may be built on Worlds. If someone accused Sony of ripping off Laguna Beach or something, they'd have responded that their engine predated it. Sony are having a few troubles of their own at the moment, as are many companies reliant on nonessential purchases who have built their reputation on being sometimes overpriced.
I'm probably wildly imagining conspiriacies where there are none, of course - there's no way Sony are bitter over WoW's massive success.
NCSoft sued by MMO patent holders [News]
