These days you're hardly participating in the electronic gaming industry if nobody is accusing you of stealing from their supa' secret stash of controller design patents. Microsoft and Nintendo have been
lagging behind Sony lately, but the pair of them just got a nice big lawsuit which should have their respective controller design teams grinning with pride. The suit comes courtesy of Anascape Ltd, a Texas firm that is accusing Microsoft and Nintendo of breaching a whole slew of patents. The offenses include patents for "Variable Conductance Sensor," "Game Controller with Analog Pressure Sensor," "Variable Conductance Sensor with Elastomeric Dome Cap," "Remote Controller with Analog Button," "Image Controller with Sheet Connected Sensors," "Game Control with Analog Pressure Sensor," "Variable Sensor with Tactile Feedback," "Analog Controls Housed with Electronic Displays," "Variable Conductance Sensor" (again), "Remote Controller with Analog Pressure Sensor," "Analog Sensor with Snap Through Tactile Feedback," and "3D Controller with Vibration." Yeah, we have no idea what most of those are all about, but with this many patents floating around, this lawsuit is shaping into a nice bit of summer fun.
posted August 4th 2006 12:03PM
Panda is a sad bear............
"Before law as we know it you have trial by combat or a sovereign deciding who was right. It was brutal." ~Ronald J Riley
Comparing modern law to primitive rituals as a way to justify a legal system that defends thieves like Brad Armstrong... that's just UNDERHANDED at best. It's also off topic and pretentious.
"twenty years after filing (sooner in some cases) anyone can use the discovery for nothing." ~Ronald J Riley
So you're advocating patents be used to stiffle innovation, in other words. Are you kidding me?! ZOMG!
"Part of the reason for your misperception of the situation is that a group of not so savory corporations got together over the last few years and conducted a massive media campaign to paint the inventors whom they have victimized as bad players" ~Ronald J Riley
I don't know what media campaign you're talking about, but I DO know it wasn't Anascape Ltd that put a dual shock controller in my hands so I could have a more immersive experience playing Gran Turismo 4. THAT paints them as a bad player in MY book. If that's misperception on my part then it's nobody's fault but Brad Armstrong's.
"the Coalition for Patent Piracy is made up of two major groups, one of which are washed up tech companies and the other are banks and insurance hucksters" ~Ronald J Riley
Ah, and how do you know Brad Armstrong (with his business noone has ever heard of) isn't one of them? If you have an EVIDENCE to the contrary, please present it. If not, then stop defending him.
if some shit goes down like that, and nintendo, sony, MS, cant use the controller a crazy fanboy will suicide bomb Anascape Ltd helahela! and also i bet they will do nothing with the controller
I wouldn't worry much about this. There are requirements for patentability such as novelty and non-obviousness. Each of Anascape's patents likely don't meet those requirements and will be struck out if Microsoft or Nintendo mount any type of defence at all. If Anascape really did miraculously invent all game controller technology, then its patents must be from the 80s and already expired by now anyway since everything described has existed in consumer products in one form or another for quite a while.
Ronald J. Riley is your A-Typical Inventor who is a complete moron and has no idea how to deal with the real world. He claims to have helped people secure license agreements, because they have the best idea. BULL. Ron Riley and "InventorEd" is a joke to all but 1% of inventors and patent holders. Do yourself a favor and hire someone to help you get your product or patent to market, not Ronald J. Riley.