Patent Troll, "Patent Grabbing" ?

Hello, everyone,

just found this via the DDO forums : http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news…s-Patent-Troll

In short : A company named "Treehouse Avatar Technologoes" sues Turbine over a Patent used by Turbine the Treehouse Avatar Technologies got in May this year.

Impressive, that they dare that.

Is this the result of U.S. Patent policies and laws ?

Alrik

Wait… Some firm registered a patent a few months ago and sued the company that is using it already for 5-6 years?
That is unbelievable. If that happened in my country, the case would be dropped instantly. Not only that, but how can one get a fresh patent rights on something others use for half of a decade?

The discussion on the matter at the DDO forums : http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=395043

On the company : http://www.patentgenius.com/assignee…logiesInc.html

And this is seemingly the Patent itself : http://www.patentbuddy.com/Patent/8180858

Granted is different than filing. It doesn't say when it was first filed, but its not uncommon for software patents to take several years before they are granted.

I'm not defending the patent process at all though. It's a mess and software patents (and patent trolls) are a fucking plague.

I've been reading about this one today:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2…l-of-websites/

DDR Holdings didn't file for its first patent until 1998, more than two years after Digital River was in the e-commerce business. But that might not matter in the end. DDR, the remains of a defunct dot-com called Nexchange, says it was the first company to create outsourced stores on the Internet that correctly copied the “look and feel” of the host website.

It is my understanding that a patent is not just simply one idea, but is bound to a strict set of rules if it is to be accepted. Some people think it's possible to patent "do this in that way" and make millions off of it. I think it actually needs to describe several key things and needs to be unique.

In any case, if Turbine can easily show prior art, which it seems to be the case here, they'll win the case.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
It is my understanding that a patent is not just simply one idea, but is bound to a strict set of rules if it is to be accepted. Some people think it's possible to patent "do this in that way" and make millions off of it. I think it actually needs to describe several key things and needs to be unique.

In any case, if Turbine can easily show prior art, which it seems to be the case here, they'll win the case.

that didn't help Samsung in Apple's case against them.

Originally Posted by wolfing
that didn't help Samsung in Apple's case against them.

Courts do fuck up, but I think Apple's patent are probably also not simple things. They are probably a set of things, like the collection of all touchscreen gestures as a way to control an touchscreen-based operating system (pinch, swipe, tap, touble tap, etc.) in combination with their touchscreen technology. The patent may have been too general, I don't know… I'm not interested in finding out.

A recent study on the case of so-called "Patent-Trolls" : http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c…act_id=2158455

Edit : A massive win for the enforcerers of the copyright laws : http://arstechnica.com/information-t…ucation-blogs/

Love hearing all of the momentum around patent trolls - and especially the Treehouse patent! We're actually really passionate about this issue too…so much so that we developed an IndieGoGo campaign to support startups and indie game developers facing lawsuits from badly behaving patent trolls, namely Treehouse Avatar Technologies! It's called "Operation Ninja S.T.A.R." and it just launched yesterday - take a look and learn more here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/op…olls/x/5454974

Our team can use all the support we can get to get Operation Ninja S.T.A.R up and running, and to really build up the momentum behind the project - we need your help! Even just a $5 contribution, a single tweet or a FB share for the project can make a big difference in a crowdfunding campaign like this. The more support we get, the more we can help the startups, gamers, and indie developers trying to fight back against these threatening patent trolls! Everyone talks about how unfair the current patent system is….but we want to DO something about it. Help us fight back against the patent trolls!

What a load of BS, I hope the court makes them pay a huge fine for wasting everyone involved’s time.

The patent U.S. 8,180,858 covers technology behind assigning characteristics to gaming avatars. Yes, avatars.

WHAT ? This isn't funny anymore.

http://google.com/patents/US8180858

This is actually the reverse of an Patent :

I expect them to have looked at a myriad games, looked at the most basic mechanics they all have in common,

and THEN - that's the point ! -

modelled that Patent after these already existing implementations !

With variations, of course, not an exact copy.

And as such, this Patent is rather a copyrigfht infringement, because they were stealing already copyrighted implementations -

- and made a Patent out of them !

In my opinion, what they did was reverse engineering, and then model a Patent after what they had reverse engineered.

And with what they reverse engineered they are basically collecting fees from the companies fr5om which they had reverse engineered from …

And everyone new as well. Becauser Newbies don't have any Lobbyists. Only the already established ones have Lobbyists. And most effective ones at that ! - So much about shielding markets from entrepreneurs …

Sounds like the result of the brand new First to File rules in the US just to keep up with the rest of the world. Who cares if someone invented it, oh no, that's too difficult for the lawyers to figure out.

Also the result of a greedy US patent office to willing to take the cash.