I guess they should switch to 2D...

[warpstorm]

Now that it has been discovered that 3D graphics have been patented and all game companies and hardware manufacturers are being sued for using 3D.

Of course 2D might not be allowed either since some of their other patents cover text and sprites.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=8260

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/04/mckool_smith_lawsuit_update/

 

[Teabeard]

I think the patent system is way messed up. I agree some patents are a good thing, but I mean, come on... there is way too many patents and they last way too long. I'm all for patent reform.

 

[Dragonsbain]

@Teabeard

Someone probably has a patent on that to.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Make the lawyers sit down in front of a PC in the courtroom with a copy of Visual Studio.NET and write a series of programs that specifically demonstrate the techniques they say belong to them, using the hardware in question. If they balk for an instant, they lose Visual Studio, and must complete the task using MASM and Notepad.

If they cannot, they automatically get a 1 year sentence digging potaoes and breaking rocks on a remote Amish farm somewhere, to impress upon them the importance of honest labor. After that, another year at a halfway house and employment at McDonalds to make sure they have been properly reeducated and can fit into society. Half their McDonalds wages go to pay court costs for tying up the legal system and screwing with gamers who have to pay more for game titles due to BS like this.

 

[Teabeard]

Well, patents used to be so that if someone invented something they would be able to profit off their discovery and no one else could take credit for it. In this day and age inventions are not the only thing patented. For crying out loud, you can patent gene sequences and living things! Small farmers can get sued for patent infringement if some of the patented seeds spill onto their fields and grow. Pretty soon we will have patented pets and patented livestock, and god knows what else. This is why medicine is so expensive because one company owns the patent and they can charge anything they want!

Sorry for ranting.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

I don't think that this case will really benefit software patent holders - if anything, the law will see the ridicule in software patents.

The software patent system needs to either be completely removed, or crippled to a point where it wouldn't really do much. Otherwise I might as well patent a five-pronged fork, then argue that a fork handle is a prong, then sue all fork manufacturers for ignoring my patent. Similar things have been done...