Sega sues Level 5 for using touch controls in a DS game

[Yakumo]

If Sega didn't make Yakuza games, they could vanish from the face of the earth for all I care. No doubt they're close to bankruptcy and are desperate. Talk about a has-been company, sad really.

Some how I don't think they are close to bankruptcy.

Anyway, without knowing what the patent is then no one can comment. If another compnay uses your patent no matter how stupid it may be, you have the right to sue. Don't forget that Sega have been sued many times for just as stupid **** in the past. Atari sued them for the Mega Drive controller ports although pretty much every system used that standard in the 80's.

[Dogg Thang]

Didn't Sega go through a phase of suing companies for using multiple camera angles after patenting it with Virtua Racing? Or did I just make that up?

[JSR]

I miss toythatkills.

[MisterBubbles]

Whats your bromance got to do with the thread?

[ETC]

If Sega didn't make Yakuza games, they could vanish from the face of the earth for all I care. No doubt they're close to bankruptcy and are desperate. Talk about a has-been company, sad really.

They better get Yakuza 5 and HD collection out over here then they can **** off till Yakuza 6

[nakamura]

I miss toythatkills.

Where is he?

[JSR]

Whats your bromance got to do with the thread?

He could always be counted on to deflate the sensationalism of a Sketcz thread.

[MrMarbles]

I believe Sega's racing cam patent revolves around having the camera lerping between positions (ie. smoothly transitioning from cockpit to external), which is why every single racing game nowadays has the camera snapping between positions.

Software patents such as this are a load of sweaty balls that have no place in videogames.

[sj33]

It must be so hard to develop a game without unknowingly violating a patent.

[noobish hat]

If Nintendo had patented every one of their software innovations and enforced them, they'd be richer than God.

[Sketcz]

He could always be counted on to deflate the sensationalism of a Sketcz thread.

The delivery may be sensationalist, but the message is one that every single human being should preach:
Software patents are bull****. Software patents benefit no one except corporate executives and shareholders, and only stifle creativity. The law must change so as to abolish this kind of insipid, illogical, infuriating, short-sighted, greedy, untenable, idiocy.

How is it that we as a species support this kind of thing? Not just in games, but any kind of software patent? Sega should never have been allowed to make such a patent - they effectively now have a monopoly on touch-screen football games. Why do we even have a system in place which allows monopolies? All it does it create a chilling effect on progress.

I feel like I'm trapped in a Victorian era novel, and everyone is saying "I think chimney sweeps are great" - and I'm trying to say: "FFS! You're sending children up soot coated chimneys! Have you even thought through what's going on here?!"

Software patents. Who the **** thought they would be a good idea?

Everyone is so concerned about civil liberties and personal freedoms, but this is the real bogeyman under the bed: Copyright law and patents.

[Dogg Thang]

Software patents. Who the **** thought they would be a good idea?

Patent trolls.

[sj33]

The original concept of patents was actually to encourage innovation, the same with copyright. Unfortunately, modern companies and corporations abuse these concepts to extract every little bit of money from an idea, stifle development and kill competition by making it very difficult for people to creatively build upon an existing concept.

It is an antiquated concept from the 19th century that is still being peddled as legitimate purely because it brings in so much money for big businesses who do not actually have to do anything to earn that money, and the whole system should be abolished. People should recognise that building upon the foundations of existing ideas is a natural part of progress and should not be monetised.

[Golgo]

^ but then you will get entire industries/economies based on bootlegging and plagiarism...rather like China, as it happens.

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, it's a tricky line. If you don't allow people ownership of their own developments, you don't reward R&D at all. The people who are rewarded are just those who are better at selling the advances of others, because they don't have any R&D costs. So, as a concept, I'm all for patents. But it seems it has all gone ridiculous in the software world with people patenting vague concepts that are all very natural developments as opposed to patenting real innovations right down to a detailed level. This is stifling progress and just leads to a world of patent trolls.