Successful game/console makers never know when they might be hit with a new patent infringement, and today a new lawsuit was uncovered by GamePolitics. Bareis Technologies, citing a patent filed in 1995, has filed suit against Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Electronic Arts and Disney Interactive Studios in U.S. District Court located in the Eastern District of Texas.
The patent broadly covers the use of voice recognition to access content on an optical disk. Games specifically mentioned include the Rainbow Six series, the Ghost Recon series, EndWar, the Socom series, the NASCAR series and Phonics Quest. Bareis is seeking a jury trial and royalty payment as damages.
We strongly hope that Bareis doesn’t receive a dime from this lawsuit; the patent covers too many specific instances and yet doesn’t mention video games specifically even once.
2 Comments
November 19, 2009
Sounds like they are patent squatter. They get a patent that is very broad sounding, then sit around and do nothing with it and wait to sue someone who comes up with something similar. I hope they lose and are forced to pay the legal fees of all 4 companies they are suing.
November 27, 2009
I hate patents.We could be making better games without them. Or at least inventions should have creative commons licensing.