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3D Games Patent Threatens Industry?

Posted by Zonk on from the i-don't-think-this-is-going-to-fly dept.

Castar writes "Recently Advanced Video Graphics (AVG) sued several game publishers for infringing on their patent on "Method and Apparatus for Spherical Panning". Since this affects almost every 3D video game, the International Game Developers Association sent out a call for prior art in their monthly newsletter. An industry lawyer has also done an overview of the issue here. I would think lots of CAD software produced before 1983 would invalidate the patent."

15 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Remember when... by czarangelus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Remember back when patents were used to stimulate researchg and development, rather than to emasculate it?

    Neither do I, I'm only 22.

    --
    When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
    1. Re:Remember when... by cgenman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've often wondered when this would come up.

      Pretty much all of the game companies I've worked for have patented something. A lot of these were looked upon as either "We're going to be terribly rich" in the heat of the moment, then ignored later on, or are just kept around in case someone else starts a patent war. And, of course, nobody knows about it, and everyone does it, because who would think someone would have a patent on a character playing silly sound effects when you click on it repeatedly?

      And that's really the problem: people are getting more and more bigger and bigger legal guns pointed at eachother's heads through this system. Everyone knows that despite their mandate, the patent office doesn't check these things. So more people get more and more of these guns. It's mutually assured destruction on an industry-wide scale, and it's foolish. It's basically asking for the same trouble as the mutual defense treaties of world war 1... once a shot is fired, everyone's guns are going to start going off.

      I can't believe congress is having hearings on Major League Baseball when real problems as gaping as this exist in the system.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
  2. Patents are really out of hand. by Travelsonic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Am I the only one who sees the need for patent reform? If such a thing was to come and change the patent system (I hope to GOD so in the near future), I think that patent reform should include diasllowing patents on things thant ANYBODY can do with ease, or generic items.

    --
    If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
    1. Re:Patents are really out of hand. by shaitand · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think that patents should require a working physical invention be sent to he patent office again.

      To fix the warehousing problem they simply do not keep the inventions, instead they keep a series of digital images on each device that can be reviewed later.

      Damn, too bad you couldn't patent software anymore if you had to send a physical invention eh?

  3. Front page this mofo by UlfGabe · · Score: 2, Informative

    Defendants are Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Activision, Atari, THQ, Vivendi Universal, Sega of America, Square Enix, Tecmo, LucasArts, and Namco Hometek. Several of these defendants have joined together to mount a common (and very costly) defense.

    well we can deal without EA, i hope the others are leaving them in the cold.

    --
    Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
  4. Movie 'Tron' by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 4, Informative

    The movie Tron released in 1982 contains a shit load of 3D rendered stuff. They used existing products to render the 3D things, these products where commonly used to design technical things.

    One of the companies involved was MAGI Synthavision: http://accad.osu.edu/~waynec/history/tree/magi.htm l

    Does that qualify as prior art?

    1. Re:Movie 'Tron' by pipingguy · · Score: 2


      Just because your post was rated informative (and it was, actually) there is a difference between "where", "we're" and "were". Brits tend to pronounce and write the word as if they are the same.

  5. Not exactly a dupe, but... by Pluvius · · Score: 2, Informative

    Should've still been linked in the blurb.

    Rob

  6. Re:What is going on?b by Pluvius · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hell, it's usually done throughout the game. They're called "camera controls."

    Rob

  7. A solution to stupid patents by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 4, Funny

    My solution is to start making the government pay damages when it grants a stupid and economically damaging patent. It could pay for said damages by with a special tax on patent lawyers.

  8. I researched this very point for a client by MarkusQ · · Score: 3, Informative

    A few years back I researched this very point for a client (I'm a programmer/math guy, not a laywer). We came up with prior art dating back to the 1800s (the very same technique was used in painting for "perspective lanterns" or some such). We turned over what we'd come up with to the lawyers, they wrote a letter, and we never heard from them again.

    --MarkusQ

  9. Re:Playing Game by vettemph · · Score: 2, Funny

    >carry on playing these sort of game you are a criminal.

    cool, I always wanted to be a criminal but didn't know where to start.

    >>>Pancake!

    --
    The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
  10. Re:What is going on?b by Doug-W · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unless I'm missreading this, isn't this patent about to expire?

    United States Patent 4,734,690
    Waller March 29, 1988

    If it was granted 3/29/88 and is 17 years in length, one could write code based on it starting Weds and not need to worry. I guess that's why they're filing suit now, been waiting for the maximum number of violations.

  11. What I remember by MarkusQ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have nothing at this point (I'm working outside the US at this moment, I don't even have my notes) but it shouldn't be to hard to dig up again. Pre-google (Alta-vista + brick & mortar library) search took about a day.

    Here's what I recall off the top of my head:

    • Pretty much every projection to/from a sphere is known art to cartographers, and has been for many decades. Look in a few old cartography books.
    • Likewise, the math behind them (called projective geometry) is old hat. We found a projective geometry book from 1900 or so that spelled out the transform
    • Artists in the 1800s or so used to do paintings (called anamorphoses, IIRC) that not only used the same tricks but for exactly the same purpose. It may go back much further, but (again, IIRC) the really compelling photos we found were from work in the mid 1800s.
    Anyone who wants to is welcome to run with this, expand on it, and pass it on to anyone that it might help.

    --MarkusQ

    P.S. One further thing I recall, the laywer asked them something like "could you please specify what your patent covers--it obviously can't be the mathematics, and it can't be the technique san math, so...?"

  12. Re:Required date for prior art by imkonen · · Score: 2, Informative
    " For this patent, anything which existed publicly prior to July 20, 1984 would be considered prior art. Good luck."

    Sadly I will show off my age here and point out that one of my favorite arcade games is a perfect example of prior art. 3D world, rendered onto a 2D screen, simulating a first person view from camera. I knew I remembered playing that before '84. The link says it came out in 1980.