When it comes to frivolous and greed-driven lawsuits, few disgust me more than those instigated by patent trolls. People who make vague patents and then sue whenever they can claim infringement should really be lined up and shot, but for now, Microsoft is going to have to deal with a group who have repeatedly tried to make money out of online gaming networks.
Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum (pricks) once patented a method of "communicating live while playing the same video game in separate locations" and have been milking their "idea" since 1994. In 2004, they went after both Sony and Microsoft, and in April of this year, scored a settlement with the former over the PS2's online gaming network. Now they want more, and are focusing on Xbox Live.
Rather than settle or fight, Microsoft has tried stalling tactics to keep the case going. Back in February, the case was delayed by MS over a typo in the filing. The company has also thrown 140,000 documents at Hochstein and Tenenbaum without any form of index. Classy move indeed.
This one is probably going to drag on, but we all know how these things turn out. Microsoft will eventually settle with the leeches out of court at some point, and everything will be fine until the next bone-idle and dick-minded patent troll crawls out from under a rock.
Also, I've just patended a method for using one's legs and feet to manually travel from one location to another. I will sue anybody who uses The Sterling Self-Propulsion Technique.
Contest:
9:20 AM on 07.02.2009
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Also, why wait for 7 years to sue Microsoft?
I think I'm more disgusted by huge megacorps throwing their weight around, but hey, that's just me.
That said, these guys do seem to be looking for the first person that will sign them a six figure check.
While I usually root for the underdog, I'm gonna have to agree with you on this one Jim.
Jim Sterling, I expect your out of court settlement by the end of the day...
It seems they're shamelessly out for a quick dollar. Here's to MS just suffocating them like Sony and Nintendo should have. Not to say that the big companies can get away with anything, but when you wait seven years to tackle a problem, you're just making yourself look bad.
I find it funny that iPhone games can't have rumble because of that one company. What the hell.
For the record I am not for the patent trolls but as usual MS thinks that they can do whatever they want and will until they get smacked down... and then they will cry foul and start saying more stupid crap again like how they are going to move their base of operations from the US because our laws are so unfair.
(in case you don't know I have been working for the last 10 years or so in civil lit)
It would save them a shitload of problems.
(... and what aaronf said pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter).
Oh wait, wrong company...
Good luck to all of those start-ups who are working on new IP. I mean, there wouldn't be a long history of large companies stealing their ideas, beating them to market with their bigger resource pool, and then making this argument with massive legal teams to try and deny the patent lawsuits or anything.
You've all been infringing on my patent and I suspect you all to pay up soon
I definitely recommend reading it before jumping down their throats and calling them pricks.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5292125.html
"The video game communicator (100) also converts the command signals into communication signals to be sent over telephone lines to be received by another video game communicator"
who the hell has dial up anymore? patent failed.
It's one thing to be actively working on bringing the patent to market, and quite another to simply file a patent and just sit on to cash in on other's hard work. Two completely different situations. Far too many current patent lawsuits fall into the latter category.
I predict this case was filed in Texas.
It's kind of ridiculous that Microsoft, of all things, is the one being victimized, but not for the first time I'm happy to see the upsettingly large legal sway of a Fortune 500 company shit all over a couple of opportunistic douchebags.
I do believe your patent is infringing upon Buck's and Sons Binary Alternating Conveyance!
If I patented my idea of 'projecting a 3D image into 3D space' does that mean I can get lots of dosh if someone invents the holographic projector after a lifetime of research and development. They work for their entire life, I write a single line yet I win?
Having an idea is NOT HARD, making it work is.
I have learned, repeatedly, that legal conflicts are not design meetings. Legal stuff is weird. So, could this somehow be a "valid" patent with regard to xbox live? Mmmmmaybe. But from a tech point of view, I'd be very surprised.