14 DAY TRIAL // As if being sued by Brazil’s federal prosecutors for alleged privacy violation in Windows 10 wasn’t enough, Microsoft is now being sent to court by Infernal Technologies and Terminal Reality for what they claim to be “willful” patent infringement.
Terminal Reality explains in court documents that Microsoft has used without authorization the technology described in patents 6,362,822 and 7,061,488, which as GamesIndustry notes, cover graphical lightning and shadowing methods.
The firm says that its very own Infernal Engine has already been licensed to a number of studios, but Microsoft used it without paying for a series of titles, including Halo 5, Forza, Sea of Thieves, and others.
The story goes back to 1995, as Terminal Reality and Infernal Technologies explain that they originally worked together with Microsoft on a series of game-related projects. The software giant eventually attempted to patent a technology described as “the use of precomputed shadow fields in lighting and shading techniques used in video games” in 2005, but its application was refused because it was too similar to Terminal Reality’s patents.
Microsoft accused of deliberately violating patents
After several other failed patent applications, Microsoft decided in 2009 to get in touch with Terminal Reality and request access to the source code of the Infernal Engine.
Despite being allowed to use the engine for a Star Wars video game, Microsoft then used it for several other games, and Terminal Reality says the company is infringing on its technologies “with knowledge of the patent.”
“Upon information and belief, Microsoft has had knowledge that its conduct of designing, developing, promoting, providing and selling the Accused Instrumentalities would cause third-party end users and third-party video game developers to perform one or more methods claimed in one or more of the method claims of the ʼ488 Patent, or has been willfully blind to the possibility that its acts would induce such direct infringement,” the court documents read.
Microsoft hasn’t issued a statement on this new lawsuit, but there’s a chance a settlement would be reached in the coming months.