this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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Zynga owes IBM $45M after using 1980s patented technology for hit games (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 months ago by BrikoX to c/technology
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Zynga plans to appeal and confirms no games will be affected.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (3 children)

IBM argued that its patent, initially used to launch Prodigy, remains "fundamental to the efficient communication of Internet content." Known as patent '849, that patent introduced "novel methods for presenting applications and advertisements in an interactive service that would take advantage of the computing power of each user’s personal computer (PC) and thereby reduce demand on host servers, such as those used by Prodigy," which made it "more efficient than conventional systems."

According to IBM's complaint, "By harnessing the processing and storage capabilities of the user’s PC, applications could then be composed on the fly from objects stored locally on the PC, reducing reliance on Prodigy’s server and network resources."

The jury found that Zynga infringed that patent, as well as a '719 patent designed to "improve the performance" of Internet apps by "reducing network communication delays." That patent describes technology that improves an app's performance by "reducing the number of required interactions between client and server," IBM's complaint said, and also makes it easier to develop and update apps.

All I can say is yikes.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure the patent made sense at the time, but it seems pretty generic now. Additionally, shouldn't the patent have expired at this point? Why is it still being enforced?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That was my thoughts. Patents normally expire after 20 years, so how is a patent from the 80s still valid after nearly 40?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So how is it that a patent from 1989 only expired in 2023?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I not going to pretend I understand patents but it looks like IBM just asked for an extension and got it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

There is a period between filing a patent and actually receiving it. Maybe you've seen the phrase "patent pending" before. That likely plays a role here, if I read this right

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

Yeah, bullshit patents.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Every single phone application does this. The entire Google and Apple app store economy is built on the local host doing something to make it easier on the servers.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

A good chunk of the internet in general as well. I don't see how this is in any way enforcable. So fucking many things do this.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Classing dying corporation spends more on their patent lawyers than they do their programmers. The IP lawyer to programmer ratio going positive is the death knell