Story here and here.

As I said elsewhere, this could get really nasty, considering the parent companies involved (Hasbro and Topps).

Yeah, I pretty much saw this coming.  That patent was a load of bullshit.

This situation smells unpleasantly similar to IBM's notorious tactic of alleging patent infringement against smaller competition with the "deeper pocket" strategy -- they could potentially bankrupt a competitor by dragging things out indefinitely in court.  Supposedly, even when the little guy would stand up to IBM's lawyers with an open-and-shut defense under their wings, IBM would then show them a list of 10 more allegations of patent infringement that they would bring to bear.

!i!

Okay, small point of confusion or oder here:

 Shouldn't this thread be in the OTHER GAMES section??

 Neither of those games mentioned are role playing games.
They're just variations on CMGs.


- Ed C.

No, the patent was absolutely legitimate, and the guy who designed the Wizkid's game that violated the patent was an ex-Wizards employee who had been chief of R&D back when Wizards first came up with the patented concept.  
In other words, Wizkids directly stole WoTC's idea.

To get the full scoop, check out my blog entry for today, June 5th.

RPGPundit

I'd like to see how this turns out. I'm not for either side....just curious.

Quote from: RPGPunditNo, the patent was absolutely legitimate, and the guy who designed the Wizkid's game that violated the patent was an ex-Wizards employee who had been chief of R&D back when Wizards first came up with the patented concept.  
In other words, Wizkids directly stole WoTC's idea.

To get the full scoop, check out my blog entry for today, June 5th.

RPGPundit

Says the guy who sucks up to Wizards like a cheap whore to jsutify his tastes for a game about magic deer.

You're not exactly a reliable or unbiased source.

Quote from: J ArcaneSays the guy who sucks up to Wizards like a cheap whore to jsutify his tastes for a game about magic deer.

You're not exactly a reliable or unbiased source.

Are you saying I'm lying? Are you denying any of my actual statement? Or are you just being your usual whiny bitch self?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditAre you saying I'm lying? Are you denying any of my actual statement? Or are you just being your usual whiny bitch self?

RPGPundit

I'm saying I want proof, not the bogus claims of a jackass who'll twist anything to suit his own personal agenda.

This'll be interesting.

Hell, WizKids could just be doing this lawsuit as a publicity stunt and it would work profit-wise.

Looking over the patent I say if upheld WizKids is definitely screwed. However the Supreme Court had a new ruling on the standard of obviousness. Basically the new ruling says that you can't just patent something that combines pre-existing elements without adding at lead one non-obvious thing. This was in response to people patenting methods and software where it was just take normal things but doing them with computers instead.

I remember some games (mostly space related) where the pieces were constructed from paper and assembled. The swapping of parts to represent damage may be patentable I never heard of that using paper or flat parts.

But certainly it was done with plastic parts and would it be that non-obvious for somebody to do the same thing with flat paper/cardboard/plastic parts.

They will have a lot to talk about in court.

Rob Conley

J Arcane, my blog entry had all the proof. WoTC filed the patents years before Wizkids put out Pirates... and most importantly the same guy who had invented the particular card-gimmick for WoTC went on to work for Wizkids and was the guy who invented Pirates, the game that uses that method.

So this is a clearcut case of corporate theft.

There's no debate here, other than the eternal debate of why you are such a worthless cunt, and why you're on this site at all?

RPGPundit

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaThis situation smells unpleasantly similar to IBM's notorious tactic of alleging patent infringement against smaller competition with the "deeper pocket" strategy --

Uh... you do realize the other fucking company is Topps right? Who's the "smaller competition" in this scenario?

This is two HUGE companies suing each other over bullshit (on both sides) and guys on forums are taking sides.

The fact that anyone not planning to design a CSG in the near future would care (much less take sides) in a tussle between two big companies is silly as heck.

MY favorite executive is Bill Slaviscek... who's YOUR favorite executive?

Quote from: RPGObjects_chuckUh... you do realize the other fucking company is Topps right? Who's the "smaller competition" in this scenario?

I shouldn't have been so specific.  The intended point of the story is how IBM was (still is?) notorious for filing patent infringement suits as a means to dog, and hopefully cripple, competition.  And it's not a unique or isolated corporate strategy.

!i!

The BES result would be is WizKids admits wrongdoing...but they work out a deal so thart they can keep making the "Pirates of...." little ship game. It has gained in popularity and followers.

 They should get punished....but I'd rather gamers not lose a fairly well-liked game.

 Wasn't there a similiar case about 15 years ago  where the company in the wrong agreed to adfvertise some product of the other company for a year or more?

- Ed C.