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Yahoo! Sues Xfire Game Browser

Posted by Zonk on from the what-a-coincidence dept.

Gamespot has the word that Yahoo! has filed a lawsuit against XFire, just two months after Yahoo!'s acquisition of the All-Seeing Eye, a similar game matching program. However, the lawsuit seems to revolve around the Yahoo! developed GameProwler. The program allows instant messaging users to see if buddies are currently playing games. From the article: "As this complaint is just one week old, no 'next steps' are certain. Lawyers familiar with patent law have told GameSpot a case like this could cost up to $2 million to defend and take up to two years to fully adjudicate."

3 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Patent on USPTO site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Here

  2. Re:obligatory prior art post by MikeFM · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know I've used MUDs that did this for over a decade. You could play one MUD and use an IM-like network to see who was on other MUDs and chat with them or even play games with them. Seems the concept would be similar enough to invalidate such lame patents.

    I remember doing similar things with BBS systems too.

    --
    At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  3. Re:obligatory prior art post by bedessen · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't know why no one has posted it yet but here's a link to the text of the patent. The claimed date of filing seems to be 3-July-2000, when the provisional patent was filed.