bareis-technologies
Latest
Ubisoft, Sony, EA and Disney settle voice recognition lawsuit
One year after a being sued for allegedly infringing on a voice recognition technology patent, publishers Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Disney Interactive Studios have decided to settle the matter out of court, according to Gamasutra. On November 10th, 2009, Bareis Technologies, LLC filed a lawsuit claiming titles such as SOCOM, Tom Clancy's EndWar and NASCAR and Phonics Quest, infringed on a 1996 patent that outlined a process of speech recognition templates to be present on optical disks in order to access specific information and issue commands for control purposes. Originally, Bareis Technologies' patent was largely targeted towards accessing specific music tracks on audio CDs, making no mention of the concept being used to control game functions. According to the report, the U.S. District Court's Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division approved a motion applied by all defendants in the claim requesting a mutual dismissal on April 21, 2010. That, in turn, dismissed all counterclaims made in the process. The terms of the settlement were not revealed, although the court documents obtained by Gamasutra state all parties will pay their own legal fees.
Ubisoft, Sony, EA and Disney sued over voice recognition patent
CJ Sorg On November 10th, Bareis Technologies, LLC filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts and Disney Interactive Studios, claiming that various games, including Tom Clancy, SOCOM and NASCAR titles, infringe upon a patent filed in 1996. "Optical disk having speech recognition templates for information access" describes a process "integrating automatic speech recognition technologies into optical disk players for command and control purposes." As is typical with lawsuits of this nature, the plaintiff is seeking "no less than a reasonable royalty" for the supposed use of this "stolen" technology. Should the case make it to court, the plaintiff will have a few hurdles to overcome. Primarily, lawyers will have to prove how a patent largely targeted towards accessing specific music tracks on audio CDs is applicable to the video games in question. Considering it's been over seven years since the debut of the first SOCOM game, it's surprising that the plaintiff has waited so long to file this suit. Perhaps it's telling that the company going forward with the lawsuit has done so little in the thirteen years since filing the trademark that it has no web presence whatsoever. [Via GamePolitics]
