14 DAY TRIAL // The gaming industry has evolved over the years, and has quickly embraced all the benefits that new technologies could bring to it, thus easing and introducing new things to game and console development.
One such feature is the wireless technology, which is now present in quite a lot of devices all around us. Among them, our handheld consoles, like the PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS, both use wireless technology in order to facilitate multiplayer modes and the communication between users all across the world, and our smartphones, like the ones in Nokia's line of N-branded terminals, use it to surf the Internet or for other services.
But now, it seems that a small company, called Wall Wireless, is taking the three big corporations to court, because it claims that all of them are infringing a patent that it filed back in 2003, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Creating and Distributing Real-Time Interactive Media Content Through Wireless Communication Networks and the Internet.” The company is claiming that the three big electronics manufacturers made it “[suffer] monetary damages that are compensable by no less than a reasonable royalty.”
Said patent explains that it “pertains ... to methods and systems that allow an operator to distribute messages having aural or visual content that is generated by the operator using handheld apparatuses such as mobile telephones.” The company claims that devices such as the PSP, the DS, the N-branded phone line, including N81, N82, N93 and N95, or even video games that feature wireless multiplayer, like Mario Kart or WipeOut Pulse, are all infringing its patent.
While the three companies made no statements, you can be sure that the suit won't result in the small company being paid. Hopefully in the future we won't hear about any other firms claiming money from large corporations for patents that are too general or old.