SpaceSimCentral

What do you think of this crock... I can't believe some people these days. Someone created the power switch and almost everything electronic/mechanical have them how come a long lost descendant of you invited sue the planet for patent infringement :)Legally though if Paltalk Holdings has a good enough argument and proof of patent infringement that might be walking into a sum of money. Like it says Msoft already settled with them so you never know it might have some merit. They should do away with patents or least make the restrictions/guidelines more relaxed in nature.Full article here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/09/multiple-mmo-developerspublishers-named-in-patent-suit.ars
Quote:
Some of the biggest names in the MMO business have been named in a patent lawsuit that claims their multiplayer technology violates patents that allow players to experience the same digital environments simultaneously. New York-based Paltalk Holdings, Inc. has named Sony, NCsoft, Activision Blizzard, Turbine Studios, and Jagex Ltd. as defendants in the case.The suit was filed in Marshall, Texas; a typical starting point for patent legal lawsuits because it's considered plaintiff-friendly in such cases. The basis for the complaint stems from the claim that the companies are infringing on patents that Paltalk purchased in 2002 from another company called HearMe.Essentially, the patents cover sharing data between computers that are connected together so users see the same digital environment. Paltalk claims that the technology used by the defendants in their games violates these patents because players have to see the same environs simultaneously when they play an MMO title together.The problem for the named defendants is that Paltalk managed to already score a noticeable victory on this front against Microsoft. In 2006, the company sued Microsoft over the multiplayer technology used in its Halo games. The case went to trial in Marshall, but Microsoft decided to settle with Paltalk mid-trial. While the settlement itself doesn't constitute a legal victory, it makes things more challenging for the defendants, having given credibility to the claims.

The patent trolls strike again!

There really is no end to these parasites, is there?Fear not, my own patent shall soon be ready for litigation. My distant ancestor was the first one to have evolved inflatable sacks for the purpose of drawing in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide from the body. The fact that these 'lungs', as they quickly became known, have spread to the entire human population represents nothing more than a serious and total breach of the patent covering my ancestor's discovery, and I shall be pressing for recompense, a significant percaentage of all monies and technologies built on the back of this patent, back-dated to the pre-cambrian era, as soon as my legal team have drafted the paperwork.

It's just that some things shouldn't fall under such a broad umbrella. I could see a pinpoint breach like code looking the same or technology/os features almost identical. This suit is so broad that it covers too much unless there is something else we don't know. It would be like Joseph Priestley heirs suing all the soda companies for royalties for using his idea of soda.