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-Ross

On this day in history, as reported by Wired.com, on May 26, 1981, the USPTO granted the first pure software patent, U.S. Patent No. 4,270,182, to Satya Pal Asija. Video games are computer software, so the '182 patent really was a groundbreaker for the industry. The software was a natural-language-interface program called Swift-Answer, an acronym for the contrived name Special Word-Indexed Full-Text Alpha-Numeric Storage With Easy Retrieval.

The dust has long settled on the Sony/Immersion haptic feedback suit, right?

Not quite. According to a complaint filed in Thorner v. Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc., Case No. 09-01894 (NJ filed April 21, 2009), and amended recently, a witness from that case claims he was tricked into cooperating and signing away his own patent rights for a fraction of their worth.

According to the complaint, Craig Thorner was an engineer who held several patents that were also directed to haptic feedback technology, similar to those asserted by Immersion against Sony, and his patents were part of Sony's after-trial attempt to invalidate Immersion's patents.

The complaint alleges that days after the verdict against Sony, Thorner was contacted by another company that had also been targeted by Immersion. This other company, Performance Designed Products LLC (PDP), was a game distribution company, and (according to the complaint) needed Thorner's help.

Thorner claims that in working with PDP, he ended up negotiating with them to license his own patents to them, and that in that negotiation process he sought help from the same attorneys that represented Sony. According to the complaint, those attorneys helped him with the license, and they encouraged him to accept terms that were less than favorable to Thorner (including a provision that could grant a patent license to Sony, and another one accepting royalty payments that were much less than he had originally sought).

Thorner now alleges that all that time, those attorneys were actually helping Sony get a better deal out of him, and that Sony and PDP were actually working together to get that deal. He has sued them for legal malpractice, and has sued Sony for infringement of his patents.

This case is just beginning, so we will have to wait to see the other side of the story, and to see how it all turns out. Stay tuned ....

Online chat company Paltalk Holdings, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation have formally dismissed the patent suit between them in the Eastern District of Texas.

In the suit, Paltalk alleged that the chat and communication features in Microsoft's XBox Live service infringed Paltalk's patents 5,822,523 and 6,226,686, both entitled "Server-group Messaging System for Interactive Applications," and sought tens of millions of dollars in damages. Microsoft alleged that the asserted claims were invalid, and that their service did not infringe those patents.

The case went to trial in March of 2009, but it abruptly ended when the parties announced they had reached a settlement. The formal dismissal is a procedural step that formally closes the court's books on the case.

The settlement means those patents have avoided having their validity and scope tested in that court, so they live to fight another day. No word yet on whether Paltalk will target some other unlucky online gaming company, but we'll keep an eye out and keep you posted.

For those keeping track at home, the case cite is: Paltalk Holdings, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., No. 2:06cv367 (E.D. Tx, filed Sept. 12, 2006).

Two items of note, one of which is in two parts:

1) Square Enix reportedly kills Chrono Trigger fan project based on alleged copyright infringement.

2) Duke Nukem Forever news...
2.1) 3 minutes of Duke Nukem Forever footage released, but...
2.2) It appears that the 3 minutes is all we'll ever see, because 3D Realms has reportedly shut down!

Bummer.

Samuel Michael Keller v. Electronic Arts inc. et al.
case number 09-cv-1967
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

From Law360:

Law360, New York (May 06, 2009) -- A former quarterback for Arizona State University has filed a putative class action against Electronic Arts Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletics Association for appropriating and using the images and attributes of college sports players in its popular line of interactive video games in violation of NCAA rules, which prohibit commercialization of college players.

Sam Keller, once a starting quarterback for ASU's and University of Nebraska’s football teams, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claiming that EA video games like NCAA March Madness, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball violate NCAA rules prohibiting the use of college athletes’ names and images in commercial ventures.

It looks like Mr. Keller is trying to get class action status, which could make this a huge case and a potential black eye for the NCAA and EA. Apparently EA has copied the appearance and likeness of players, down to their personal clothing choices and hairstyles, without actually using the players' names. However, many of the games allow users to upload rosters that include the actual players' names. This case just might have legs. We've added it to our tracking list and will keep you posted regarding substantive developments.

In an interesting twist, Taser International voluntarily dismissed this case before Linden even answered the complaint. Taser filed a Notice of Voluntary Case Dismissal on May 5, 2009. Because Linden never filed an answer, the dismissal is without prejudice and Taser could choose to refile the case at a later time if desired. But for now, this case is closed.