Microsoft is being sued by online chat company Paltalk Holdings over functions of Xbox Live it says infringes on its patents.
For infringement claims on two Paltalk patents (numbers 5,822,523 and 6,266,686 if you're interested) the company is demanding monetary compensation of $90 million (£65m), according to Seattle PI.
Apparently Paltalk's technology covers a number of aspects of online communications, including "gaming communications through a group message server to maintain a consistent environment for all players, as well as establishing groups for online game play."
Microsoft claims it had meetings with the patents' creator but after studying its technology decided to take a different direction in the development of Xbox Live's tech.
Microsoft is set to begin trial shortly in East Texas.
Good luck to them! Deep down they know they'll have to settle for a fifth of that amount if the judge rules in their favor. Very doubtful they'll get a dollar though...
what i don't get is if Xbox Live's been going since the original xbox which had chat functions and a dashboard party chat option why wait until now to sue?
what i don't get is if Xbox Live's been going since the original xbox which had chat functions and a dashboard party chat option why wait until now to sue?
They were probably too busy trying to sue some other poor sap at the time.
what i don't get is if Xbox Live's been going since the original xbox which had chat functions and a dashboard party chat option why wait until now to sue?
Let's put it this way. Have you ever heard of the company before now? Probably not. We're in a recession and I'm guessing they're having financial problems and want to make some quick cash.
This is typical of M$...... they think they can just steam roller around every industry paying off compensation as they go!!! Should be $900m.
Or should be nothing at all.... There appears to be a new company that nobody has ever heard of from Texas filing a lawsuit every other day for an infringement by a technology which has been in widespread use for a number of years. Firstly both vague and obvious patents should not be granted in the first place. Secondly if a patent is infringed and the infringing technology has been widely know in the public domain for a certain amount of time (say 18months) then the patent holder should not be able to sue. Also if the patent holder has no product, licensing of product, or even a prototype (or at least prove to be currently building a prototype) then the patent should be void after 2 or 3 years. These companies should not be able to patent something with no intention of ever producing that something and they should not be able to wait until a product has made a ton of money before suing. As soon as they realise the patent has been infringed they should be challenging it.
This is typical of M$...... they think they can just steam roller around every industry paying off compensation as they go!!! Should be $900m.
sorry couldn't quite understand that, could you try again but this time take Sony's c**k out your mouth
Cant mate i have yours in there already!
rrriiiggggghhhhhtttt! and did you actually think before coming out with that comment? or did it just come to you in a flash like all your other posts seem to. and thats never gonna happen, no matter how much you wish for it.
Remeber the slaughted goat??? to launch GOW, now thats hardcore!!!!
Tragic.
Me thinks 'benstevens' may have fallen down and hit his head. Or perhaps eaten some extremely questionable chicken...
possibly from the KFC in Cumbernauld or Stirling. honestly we must have 2 of the worst KFC's in the country, they can't even cook chips right and you've always got to check your order in case they've forgot to put your burger in the box.
Even if this is true and there have been patent infringements, Microsoft's lawyers will tie them up in so much red tape and the appeals process that they'll be lucky to see a dollar within the next decade.
Remeber the slaughted goat??? to launch GOW, now thats hardcore!!!!
I dont think you fully understood what I meant by the term 'hardcore'. It was nothing to do with goats (or sheep) it was more to do with the fact of how rabid and relentless a Fanboy you are.
You seem to be the kind of person that would actually want a Games company, developer or publisher to go out of business (as long as the name of said company starts with Micro and ends in Soft) and to me that disqualifies you as a Gamer and therefore allows me to press the ignore button everytime you post.
Still crimbo seems to have gone awol and we do need our Village Idiot, so post away
This is just getting silly. They are all nothing more than greedy bastards who want something for nothing. I hope these cases against MS, Ninty and Sony get thrown out but to say I have little faith in the American legal system is an understatement.
The problem is the US patent office. They will and do issue patents for anything. They even over rule worldwide patents if the company is outside of the US. They always stick by their own to the disregard of the rest of the world. It stinks and something should be done about it. But they make there own problems by patenting anything.
Another example of this stupid sueing culture the world has developed in the last ten years or so, and a desperate party trying to cash in and make a quick buck off someone else richer than them. It also seems quite strange how they waited all this time to sue, as Xbox live has been up and running for two generations of consoles. I hope MS counter sue for wasting everybodys time, and maybe the bloke(or woman) who invented the internet will sue everyone else for using it. Who knows. It seems anything is possible these days.
So they had the same idea alot of people have probably had the same idea it's a big world the thing that counts is if it's actually the same thing and I'd doubt it is, it's very hard to think of something new in a world with so many people thinking, xbox just does things in a new way where most other things don't. So I hope the company lose bad and MS fubar them.
Remeber the slaughted goat??? to launch GOW, now thats hardcore!!!!
I dont think you fully understood what I meant by the term 'hardcore'. It was nothing to do with goats (or sheep) it was more to do with the fact of how rabid and relentless a Fanboy you are.
You seem to be the kind of person that would actually want a Games company, developer or publisher to go out of business (as long as the name of said company starts with Micro and ends in Soft) and to me that disqualifies you as a Gamer and therefore allows me to press the ignore button everytime you post.
Oh dear, you've disqualified him as a gamer, he must be devestated. And you're ignoring him so well with that length post.
Sounds dubious to me. Let them have their day in court by all means, and should the verdict come back that MS hasn't embezzled upon the other company's patent then let them be counter-sued and have to pay both sides' legal bills. I doubt it will stop all frivolous lawsuits but it might help give some people pause.
As stated above I do think there should be a fair legal hearing just in case MS did infringe upon the patent. Personally I'm inclined to give MS a large benefit of the doubt on this one. However, someone posted earlier that suing MS is almost bound to end in failure. Well, it has been done. Successfully. When MS ran up against EU anti-trust laws concerning monopoly in the open market MS got a bleeding nose to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros. There are times I love the nation state agenture which still has the power and ability to not only withstand, but also keep in line, unscrupolous multi-national corporations. That said, the very same nation states need to have watchdog groups keeping their nose to the grindstone as well. Here's the basic formula:
Group A watches Group B which watches Group C which in turn watchs Group A.
Pristo presto! There you have it: Separation of powers.
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Good luck to them! Deep down they know they'll have to settle for a fifth of that amount if the judge rules in their favor. Very doubtful they'll get a dollar though...
