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Pocketpair reveals specific patents featured in Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld
(www.gamedeveloper.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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Software patents shouldn't exist!
Or at least the bar should be much much higher. Like if you've invented the SHA algorithm... Fine.
However, if you've just invented "a way to purchase something over the network via a phone"... That is not patent worthy.
You should not patent algorithms as it's a "discovery" not an invention.
There are 2 main category in software patents that mimics real life production, that I think is fairly acceptable.
The throwing ball to capture creature I think is more copyright than patent.
Counterpoint: both of those ideas being patented meant no competitor could use them while the ideas were relevant. And in both cases, the patenting company made like one promising example of the patented idea and then barely used it after that. Wouldn't it have been better for consumers if we could have had loading screen minigames back when long loading screens were still relevant?
For the consumer, obviously.
Patents exist to protect the profit of the inventor, specifically because once you have spent the RnD money to make something, someone else can take your finished idea and create your thing without having to cover those costs. Their entire point is to make sure stuff stays more expensive and exclusive for longer.
But the issue isn't that patents or even software patents exist as a thing, they are important to protect against copying, it's that seemingly almost anything no matter how simple, vague or universal it is can apply and get patented, and whoever owns those patents then doesn't have to use or license them, instead they just sit on them waiting to strike with a lawsuit.
Like one of the Nintendo ones which is the genius and detailed idea of "you can capture objects and ride them in a virtual world using the controller input in a vidya gaym!" - a concept entire unique and one that hasn't been ever used before in a game, now prohibited to be done by anyone else until 2041.
it's like the first person invent a way to make the pop cap for your travel coffee mug. Like, anyone could have come up with that idea, right? compare to screw cap we used to have. We do have plenty of examples where the patent aren't really popular until after it is expired or irrelevant.
Like, yeah, in a heatlhy competition env, it is way better for consumer in the beginning. But because of how capital works, eventually without patent it all goes to the bigger corps.