If only necromancy were real. They could summon and battle Gygax in court.
I don’t know what went wrong that such a patent was granted. I absolutely loathe IP people.
If only necromancy were real. They could summon and battle Gygax in court.
I don’t know what went wrong that such a patent was granted. I absolutely loathe IP people.
In the US, yes. In Japan, it would appear such a concept does not exist.
They were granted the patent in the US in this case.
Indeed. The sources I’ve read seem to lay blame with games not usually patenting mechanics (which apparently is all patent officers look at for prior art, not other games), meaning it needs active challenging to be thrown out.
PocketPair is based in Japan, which is where the previous, more directly problematic patents have been filed mid-litigation. While there is clearly prior art for the US patent, it isn’t quite as comically broad as the Japan ones, and since Japan doesn’t seem to care about prior art, those remain the most concerning to me.
The patent office has long said they’re unable to attract and retain the expertise needed to evaluate novelty in any given field, and so the courts are left to sort it out.
I wonder how could a government agency not have the funding it needs? /s