Sony, EA, Ubisoft, Disney named in patent suit

My problem is, why did they wait til now to sue? If the techs been abused for so long, why wait and not go for the throat ASAP? My theory? They predicted future infringement on this patent and quietly hid it until several companies did just that so they could make some bank. If they were so adamant about protecting their patent, why wait until the proverbial warehouse of goods is empty until they start trying to defend it? Because it was worth more to them stolen.

lol...omg

"to optical disks with speech recognition templates used to access information" my car has voice activated dvd navigation. better sue the automakers too. and everyone who was the destination of me and everyone elses car aswell. From that meager description I cant believe they actually developed anything patentable. If they developed some super awesome proprietary algorithm then they might have something. But most likely its frivilous bs.

@ Blackwaltz No 3 - It's fine to say Ubi, Disney, EA and Sony should just concentrate on making games instead of "wasting time" with the other company, but it's a lawsuit. They don't get a say in it. If they've been summoned, they have to deal with it. I suspect this is one of those cases where the companies have indeed blundered ahead and used technologies without paying the propreitors of it properly. If that's the case, then of course they should pay.

i hope blackwaltz makes something so that people can steal it from him. Then, he wouldn't sue or anything because he's ok with it. what a d bag

@mav_destroyer Patents awarded after 1995 are good for 20 years before they expire. I was under the impression though that, while there is no statute of limitations on patent infringement, Plano can only sue for the last 6 years of damages... Still, it sounds like a awfully hand wavy patent (in fact I'm surprised it was awarded) and I would imagine those companies will be able to convince a judge that they've made significant deviation from the original patent to get away with it.

@carllfc i completely agree. i like how ANYTHING that anyone makes now is awesome and deserving of money until it's stolen. then the company demands the money and people call them greedy. seems more greedy of the companies in question, taking technology from other sources without consent and using it. the fact is that Bareis made something. doesn't matter what it is. they created something, spending time and money doing so, so that they could profit in the end. it's the same idea as a cook who works in a restaurant, taking the time to make food for people so that he may be rewarded. if he's not, and if someone else gets his money, it's wrong. but if the same happens to a major company now, it's apparently right by BlackWaltz and all too many other ignorant fools' standards. yay for theft! -_-

@BlackWaltz_No_3 If you made something that people would buy, then a few people come along and steal it without paying, you would want the money. They made the technology to sell it to game developers/publishers. Not to dance around and be proud of making something pointless.

Another meaningless lawsuit. I hate money grubbing losers like this company. I hope they lose the lawsuit. Sony, EA, Disney and Ubisoft are better off developing games rather than wasting time meddling with these losers.

They may be large companies but he has a patent, we'll just have to see how this goes.

"Eh... why are we ALL to blame ? Who exactly chose to adopt that commercialism ? You ? Me ? I don't recall the exact moment I signed for this world's mess-up. Then again I'm not the one with power and lots of resources who gives a damn about average people so that's probably why. Please do not fall into the well-medialized trap of self criticism, that would like to see the majority of society feeling responsible while the choices are being made by the ones on top of the pyramid." -davek1979 if you use products by despicable companies your not exactly resisting, its more like your giving consent, theres SOME blame! you still have choice, sadly very few people exercise it... you can choose not to use certain products, and yeah the system is skewed horribly against the commoner, but rather than feed it, you should consider the products you buy and what companies make them... were all at the bottom of the pyramid. as far as commercialism goes north americans are as much to blame for their daily lifestyle choices which dictate that market demand.... as the companies that make those products to satisfy that demand. we consume way more than we need in north america, and we are to blame in part, as much as the companies, they wouldnt be selling it and making profit if some of us werent buyin it...

you're taking on 4 major developers....and one of them is one of the largest and greatest electronic companies in the world. i smell death

they had the patent since 1997?! shouldn't it have expired by now? or maybe its on the verge of expiring so thats why they filed a suit. still its kinda weird.

Their going to get crushed. Self ownage incoming.

SauhlGood i dont like american commercialism myself but, but america did make it popular, even thou the rest of the world didnt have to adopt it as a rule of thumb....they did, were all to blame. --- Eh... why are we ALL to blame ? Who exactly chose to adopt that commercialism ? You ? Me ? I don't recall the exact moment I signed for this world's mess-up. Then again I'm not the one with power and lots of resources who gives a damn about average people so that's probably why. Please do not fall into the well-medialized trap of self criticism, that would like to see the majority of society feeling responsible while the choices are being made by the ones on top of the pyramid.

some of those games in that list are OLD, how come they sue now?

ohh great, one of these damn law suits again -_-

Yet another patent scam. Yet another company that wants to cash in on other people's work by using a design patent. This only goes to show how screwed up the patent system is, and how seriously it needs to be reviewed.

"I know I'm not speaking to everyone when I get a little bothered by this stuff--but we spend way too much time in the talk-back section at Gamespot defending people with billions, but I'd wager we spend a lot less time defending our friends and family with the same vigor. I'm not quite sure how that type of loyalty is earned, or works." -The Mad Spin i dare say you need better friends ; p if they not willing to go to bat. still you have a point, and this is a public forum, i think some of what your saying can be explained with wanting to 'be seen and heard'... people have opinions sometimes educated ones, sometimes not... just like scholars can agree on somthing of substance, so can two idiots be likeminded on a vacuity.

I doubt they'll get much joy out of their lawsuit. Ignoring the size of the firms they're going up against, trying to prove that someone stole your patent is one of the most difficult aspects of law. Unless the technology used is line for line identical, I can't see any damages being awarded.

Its important to protect patents otherwise where will the innovation come from, why would anyone bother to be creative if your hard work just gets ripped off.

@themadspin This could not be blatant rip of the patent. There are so many patents out there its an ocean. There are many ways to solve the same problem. These companies could have figured out one that worked and it happened to be the one the guy had patented. There are other ways to achieve the same goal, as there are many other games the have Voice chat that are not being sued. Thus the reason why the guy waited. If he sent a note first they could have figured a way around his patent and he would have been paid less. for the 1 instant. But he waited till he was satisfied that he could make enough money and that is why he is suing now.

So, dislike whoever you want in this scenario, but if you're going to be jerks just because a guy did a lot of work in the scientific field and wants to be compensated for it--well I imagine you're somewhere in your teens and think you deserve your allowance even though you have to be told seven times to clean your room. In other words, you can't distinguish between taking and earning. Between being greedy and being justified. I know I'm not speaking to everyone when I get a little bothered by this stuff--but we spend way too much time in the talk-back section at Gamespot defending people with billions, but I'd wager we spend a lot less time defending our friends and family with the same vigor. I'm not quite sure how that type of loyalty is earned, or works.

This company did all of the work to conceive of and implement this technology over 12 years ago. Some guy, in a world where disk-based gaming was still in its infancy, created this technology. A pioneer of science crafted this and filed for patent and won. It doesn't matter how long or why the patent holder waited to file suit. The fact is, this seems to be the technology of the person who filed the law suit. This means that those companies willfully borrowed his tech without doing the right thing and paying for it. They love people who argue that he (the one who did the work and has far fewer resources) is the greedy one, when they could have started out doing the right thing. Take a look at Activision making fans pay for a patch to use their peripherals cross platform in the first days of Rock Band for the PS3. This was avoided on the 360 because Microsoft demanded cross compatible peripherals. However, when it wasn't demanded, Activision didn't look after fans on both sides, they immediately chose the side that got them more cash. The same thing happened with rumble technology--and Sony was so unwilling to pay for it that they pretended it wasn't wanted by the consumer rather than pony up the licensing rights.

"They could've file the suit when the companies violated the patent the first time they intreduced these games, so why did they decided the law suit now??" -Butchcassidy79 because now the suit against these companies is substantial and so are the damages Bareis could claim...if he sued for one violation as soon as possible he wouldnt get much. But at this point hes got several companies on the hook, and their accrued revenues from those games in question, could be used to pay passed/future royalties to Bareis. It could be that they never found out about the violation for awhile, but its more likely that they are just giving enough slack on the rope to those companies only to hang them later. These are ultimately public companies, with ceo's and legal departments... and this is a business, this shouldnt be a revelation, for bullS. like this happens in every industry... bottom feeding corporate CEO's and lawyers, aint commercialism grand! "and thats the way the world is and every one wonders why america is so messed up or should i say the world" -robgam3r i dont like american commercialism myself but, but america did make it popular, even thou the rest of the world didnt have to adopt it as a rule of thumb....they did, were all to blame.

As usual it´s all abount the money... makes me sick.

They could've file the suit when the companies violated the patent the first time they intreduced these games, so why did they decided the law suit now??

and thats the way the world is and every one wonders why america is so messed up or should i say the world

What's one of its patents? What's the violation?

Honestly....those people should go screw themselves. Bunch of money hungry bums that flatout just buy some "patent" just to make money of it while the "company" themselves don't actually USE their patent. It's crooked and wrong and something should be done about these annoying pricks.

@badman11226 Lol, not a bad idea, why not. monson21502 would be the first to hit the island. Have you ever seen his xbox fanboyism on articles....you can tell by his comment below. Seriously, what kind of gamer would wish fail on a gaming company?

Demon's Souls!

Disney is the biggest failure since the 1950s. Those anti-semetic disney workers should stick to making child games, moveis, etc.

Nobody goes up against Disney and gets out alive, just ask those poor lemmings...

i think i am going to go patent technology that "allows playing games off optical discs and controlling actions with various buttons." Yes sir pretty soon you'll all be reading about my multi-million dollar suit against sony, ms, and nintendo.

lol patent trolls

@izmickey hey man this is off topic can we send fanboys to that island too if so im all in bro.

In other words, i want money and i will try everithing to obtain them :D

What I really want to know is how Bareis was able to patent a technology technique based on technology that is already patented. How was such vague terminology able to be granted a patent when a optical disk itself is a protected technology? If you read the patent itself, it talks about the use of voice to control the CD-ROM "user interface", instead of using buttons to control it, you use your voice instead. Hopefully the defense attorneys see this and counter-sues. The only thing I see as a problem is where the lawsuit was filed, in the Eastern District of Texas, a place notorious for being friendly to patent infringement suits and its plaintiffs. Bareis may win this suit just on location alone.

do you think those guys would recognize speech if Sony,EA,Ubisoft, and Disney said to them to go **** themselves?

I hate patent trolls, besides the patent is for music cds not video games.

Man this again? This is just getting out of hand!

anyone else think they waited for these guys to make a ton of money before making the lawsuit? I realize they are entitled to make the lawsuit and should, but they were either too incompetent to realize they were being screwed or really smart and just waiting for a great time to do this.

well looky here, some ppl got caught copying again. good ol sony is front and center:lol: PS, Texas-based Bareis Technologies, make em pay!!!

...grow up.

The first and last thing that should be considered before this case is thrown out is why they waited 6-8 years to file the lawsuit.

Sometimes I think anarchy would be alot more fun. Losers run this world, and the losers who don't run it will one day because they sue everybody for everything under the sun.

These guys ain't gonna get their money because that is too vague a patent. You can tell because of how many games were named.

Bareis vs EA, Sony, Ubisoft and Disney/future rulers of the world, (its inevitable, they have spider-man) Not the best people to go up against

Another company just made its name in our Patent Troll list. Shortcut to success FTW... NOT