MMO Developers Sued for Patent Infringement

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Jazzmain

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Jun 17, 2009
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damn, maybe I should see about buying some patents so I can become rich. Forget the lottery, patents are the new wave for free cash.
 

andrewcutter

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what do you get when you put together
A broken patent system
B patent trolls who patent ideas for trolling

A + B ==== C?

i say hell for innovation. Im going to patent the wheel. Oh no somebody already patented a circular travel device which touches the road... I guess ill just patent a elliptical one, prove that all circles are elipse but not all ellipse are circle and sue the circle patent holder....
(bangs head)
 
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I have a patent on the design of the eiffel tower I could sell you >_>
 
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Valcron said, "Gah, stop allowing people to patent a general idea."

It's really "Patenting a general idea, waiting for someone else to successfully innovate using something vaguely resembling it, then raking in the cash by the boatload off of their hard work."
 

zachary k

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why do all these nobodies have patents they do nothing with? our patent system is messes up. perhaps a patent on patent trolling will stop all this.
 
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"what do you get when you put together
A broken patent system
B patent trolls who patent ideas for trolling"

As the Gnomes say, "Profit". Gnomes are geniuses at corporations.
 

zachary k

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(sorry for double post, we need a delete or edit feature) America is a democracy, and all i see on the comments on stories like this is "its broken" lets stop whining about it and write some people in Washington, and that one judge. couldn't hurt.
 

Sicundercover

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Well Microsoft caving doesnt help their case at all. The only way you can have a legal precedent is if the court went to decision, not if they 2 parties settle.
 

gt1209

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When were those patents approved? EverQuest was released in March 1999, prior art might be Sony's defense if those patents were granted later.
 
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There have been synced virtual worlds before everquest as well. Meridian 59 was 1995, the realm was arround 97 ish, i know there are others, likely going back to early 90s. If you dont count graphical mmos, then there have been synced worlds in text form for longer then taht.

Our patent system is just broken.
 

Major7up

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These companies buy patents like this then sit back and potential infringements accrue and then after enough have built up, they pounce. I think there should be a statute of limitations of say 5 years after which if you did not catch it and sue, you are out of luck.
 

Liandros

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I see three patents online for this company.
Could it be this one? US7206311 - Efficient transmission of data to multiple network nodes - 04/17/2007

http://www.patents.com/Paltalk-Holdings-Inc/New-York/NY/290366/company/
 

Liandros

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I found this as well:

"The PalTalk complaint summarizes two former HearMe patents: one, filed in 1998, covers a group messaging server that organizes group lists of players. The second patent covers software that aggregates messages from members of a group to more efficiently maintain consistent communication between host computers, according to the complaint."

Source: http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2009/09/14/daily32-Turbine-on-defense-of-patent-suit.html
 
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This kind of crap, among many other forms of litigious crap, can be fixed by one single rule: loser pays.

The reason Paltalk Holdings is suing Blizzard and friends is because large companies like Blizzard are more likely to settle out of court than to incur ridiculous lawyer fees.
 
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Hehe! See how far your patents are bringing you!

Trying to protect their inventions, patents also seem to destroy their own ideas, and block progress.

Perhaps William Gilbert needs to sue MS, Sony, and ALL the major companies for making use of a device that uses electricity, while not owning a license for that!
 
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