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[GDJustin]

This could turn out to be nothing, but it could also turn out to be a huge, huge deal:

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=8236&section=feature&email=

 

[The Faceless Master]

GameDAILY BIZ received word recently that Texas-based law firm McKool Smith has sued 12 major game publishers and is threatening legal action against several smaller companies as well. Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Activision, Atari, THQ, Vivendi Universal Games, Sega, Square Enix, Tecmo, LucasArts, and Namco Hometek are all named as defendants in the case.

Tecmo is a major publisher?

 

[LakeEarth]

If it goes through, how much will they have to pay per game sold? Even at 10 cents per game, that could amount to millions.

 

[TheGreenGiant]

I hope that firm loses. What a load of shit.

 

[Gek54]

Damn, at least include the opening paragraph in the first post.

A patent infringement case for the patent, "Method and Apparatus for Spherical Planning," is now pending. The case could have enormous implications and could affect nearly every 3-D video game ever made. Put on your 3-D glasses and read all about it...

 

[Panajev2001a]

And then people wonder why I get so worked up over the modern U.S. patent system.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Only in America

 

[DDayton]

This is odd.. why was Nintendo excluded from the groups being sued? They were excluded from the "force feedback" lawsuit too. Is Nintendo just careful enough not to wander into these sorts of lawsuits? I remember that Atari sued Sega many ages ago for some sort of patent infringement regarding scrolling images, and Sega settled... but they didn't sue Nintendo.

 

[snapty00]

And then people wonder why I get so worked up over the modern U.S. patent system.

And I still do wonder. Sure, the system needs changing, but it's not worth worrying very much about because, first, the patent holder has to even enforce the patent. Second, the patent holder has to actually try the case and win. In that second part, 99% of the time, the rightful owner wins regardless of all these alarmist stories you hear.

 

[Sho Nuff]

SHUT UP STUPID LAWYER

 

[Mashing]

This is odd.. why was Nintendo excluded from the groups being sued? They were excluded from the "force feedback" lawsuit too. Is Nintendo just careful enough not to wander into these sorts of lawsuits? I remember that Atari sued Sega many ages ago for some sort of patent infringement regarding scrolling images, and Sega settled... but they didn't sue Nintendo.

They save all their lawsuits for grand mal seizure cases...

:rolleyes

 

[Mr_Furious]

Why is this law suit just targeting the video game industry? From what I can gather, it's a patent about diplaying polygons and that's about it. The movie industry has used polygonal imaging in multiple movies prior to 1988.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Unless there's more to it, this seems like this is destined to bankrupt the plaintiff. Polygonal 3D games have been around for a long, long time. MS Flight Simulator...Super Huey...I, Robot...quite a few old computer games and a few arcade ones. All pre-'88.

 

[Mr_Furious]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that a patent can get thrown out if it is proven that it is in 'common usage' prior to being filed. If this is true, then this guy doesn't have a case.

 

[GDJustin]

I wrote the piece, so I can answer a couple of questions that have come up:

Tecmo is a major publisher?

They're one of the 12 that have actually been sued. Don't ask me why McKool Smith opted to include them.

This is odd.. why was Nintendo excluded from the groups being sued?

Actually... they aren't. We wanted to run with the story as soon as we could, but there's actually more to it, that I'll hopefully be able to investigate early next week to run a follow-up. In a nutshell, there's three separate sets of litigation going on. One group sued the 12 publishers in one big suit. Another sued the 3 hardware makers, and the last group is sending letters to all the other "minor" companies. Apparently virtually every company has been notified.

My follow-up is going to try to dig into this stuff and see what (specifically) McKool Smith's plan is.

Unless there's more to it, this seems like this is destined to bankrupt the plaintiff.

I think everyone on either side of this case knows that McKool Smith doesn't HAVE a case, but the impression I got was that it's worth it for these big companies to just throw some money at them to make them go away, instead of proving what everyone already knows (that the case is BS) in court. That's what McKool Smith's strategy appears to be in all this, although I'd love to speak with them. Maybe they'll stop being in meetings 24/7 and take my calls, now

 

[DCharlie]

"McKool Smith"

worst name ever.

 

[GDJustin]

If it were Smith McKool on the other hand... well that would change everything.

 

[Coen]

I'm going to patent milk and sue a cow.

 

[Justin Bailey]

What a complete and total load of bullshit.