[Home] [Groups] - Message: [Prev in Group] [Next in Group]
11456: RE: [MUD-Dev] patents and muds
[Full Header] [Plain Text]
From: "Sellers, Michael" <MSellers@maxis.com>
Newsgroups: nu.kanga.list.mud-dev
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 11:50:47 -0700
Organization: Kanga.Nu
Bruce Mitchener wrote:
> I hesitate to bring this up here, but with the constant issuing of patents
> on basic things, it might be interesting to consider what might happen
when
> large companies start patenting mechanisms that they use in systems like
> Ultima Online, EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Middle Earth Online, and so on.
>
> Doing some searches on http://www.patents.ibm.com/ can turn up interesting
> things, like: http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05899810__
>
> Can this list help to serve as an archive of prior art? Has anyone run
into
> problems of this nature yet?
Another highly questionable patent I think. There should be loads of prior
art on this going all the way back to the early Xerox systems, to say
nothing of the many military systems employing just such a system. Of
course, only a court defense will be definitive, if it ever actually
happens.
But: I would not be surprised to see examples of bona fide advances in
MMPOGs start to appear in patents.
Mike Sellers
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev@kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev