Techdirt. Stories about "konami" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories about "konami"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:48:51 PDT Tons Of Companies Sued Over Broad Patent On Controlling Workstations In A Computer Network Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100622/0302119916.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100622/0302119916.shtml Glyn Moody points us to the news of a lawsuit that has been filed against 26 different software companies for violating an incredibly broad patent (5,832,511) on "Workgroup network manager for controlling the operation of workstations within the computer network" (say that 10 times fast). The list of companies sued is a who's who in software:
Apple, Activision, Adobe, Autodesk, Capcom, Citrix, Corel, Dassault, Delcam, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Frontrange Solutions, IBM, Intuit, Konami, Digital Entertainment, Maximizer Software, Nuance, Parametric Technology, Sage Software, Sega, Skype, SPSS, Teradata, THQ and Legacy Interactive
I'm sure none of those companies could have possibly come up with a system for controlling the operation of workstations within a computer network without this patent. At some point, isn't the fact that such a vast number of companies appear to have come up with the same basic thing independently a perfect prima facie case of obviousness?

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]]> sue,-sue,-sue,-sue http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100622/0302119916 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:08:00 PDT Konami Claims Rock Band Violates Its Patents Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080711/0107111647.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080711/0107111647.shtml sued just about everyone for patent infringement over a patent it held on "virtual concerts." It looks like that lawsuit may have woken up others who happen to hold "virtual concert" patents. Video game maker Konami, which had some virtual concert games years ago, also happened to get some patents on the concept and have now sued Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band. Once again, this looks like a "losers litigate" strategy. Harmonix has created a hugely successful product in the space -- Konami has not. Yet, Konami wants a cut of Harmonix's profits. That's not the sort of incentives that should be encouraged.

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