Sega Goes Crazy, Sues Fox, EA Over Taxi

Thanks to Reuters for the news that Sega has sued Fox, EA, and developers Radical Entertainment over the similarity between EA's The Simpsons Road Rage and Sega's own Crazy Taxi. The story reveals: "Sega holds a U.S. patent, known as the '138 patent, on 'Crazy Taxi,' in which players take the role of a taxi driver who has to accomplish outrageous driving stunts to pick up passengers and quickly deliver them to their destinations." The patent infringement suit, which asks for the recall of the game and damages for lost profits, claims The Simpsons Road Rage was designed to "deliberately copy and imitate", citing a review "...that characterized 'Road Rage' as a 'shameless incident of design burglary'."

Comments

Taxi Mode in GTA3?

[Numeric]

"take the role of a taxi driver who has to accomplish outrageous driving stunts to pick up passengers and quickly deliver them to their destinations.""

I have done that in GTA3.

1. Pick up passenger
2. Drive down the wrong side of the road , over people, down grass inclines, etc.. (does that qualify as "outrageous"?)
3. Dropped off passenger

Of course, I'll add a few extra steps:
4. Beat down exiting passenger with the baseball bat and steal their bling-bling.
5. Enter cheat code to get unlimited ammo
6. Enter cheat code to get infinite health
7. Enter cheat code for tank.
8. DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY!

The SCO Principle

[Mr Syd]

IANAL, but surely under the long-established "SCO Principle" SEGA should be suing everyone who PURCHASED Simpsons Road Rage? I am looking forward to my letter!