As the communication and collaboration environment grows increasingly competitive, it seems that everyone is trying to innovate. In a quest to be more disruptive, intuitive, and compelling, some companies may even accidentally step on the toes of their competitors. Unfortunately, even the slightest issue can lead to a huge storm of legal problems – particularly when patents are involved.
In January 2016, a jury in the District Court for the United States discovered that Metaswitch was infringing on approximately 7 different GENBAND patents. GENBAND – now Ribbon Communications, obviously responded to this issue quickly, working to ensure that they maintained their position as a 2015 CNBC disruptor, and leader in real-time communications.
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During the trial, GENBAND showed evidence that Metaswitch products were dipping their toes into a selection of patents, including 7,990,984, 7,184,427, 7,047,561, 7,995,589, 6934,279, 6,885,658, and 6,791,971. The products that were found to infringe on GENBAND technology included those in the Integrated Soft switches collection, Session Border Controllers, Call Feature Servers and a range of Universal Media Gateways.
A small inventor-owned software company backed by a powerful law firm are taking on Cisco Systems Inc. over alleged patent infringement. Los Gatos, California-based NetFuel Inc. sued Cisco on Friday,
The '869 patent describes that there is provided a gaming machine arranged to display a matrix of symbols containing elements: each column of the matrix comprising a portion of a simulated rotatable reel of the symbol containing elements, and each of the symbol containing elements of at least one consecutive run of the symbol containing elements of at least one reel is caused to display an identical symbol. Preferably, the identical symbol is selected by a game controller from a subset of available symbols. Figure 1 of the '869 patent, reproduced below, shows a gaming machine with a display having a matrix of elements and symbols comprising portions of simulated rotatable reels.
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Moreover, the Court did not agree that the mere configuration of a consecutive run of symbols in one simulated reel represents something more than changing the rules of the game. A generic slot game, as noted by experts in this case, has ever changing symbols selected at random. Realigning and altering the display of symbols on simulated spinning reels is the very essence of the generic slot game. Changing how often a symbol appears and where it appears in a slot game without more is simply altering the manner of display of random symbols -- i.e., changing the rules of the game. Changes to game rules of a generic slot machine using conventional technology are not patentable.
The Court noted that the '869 patent was allowed inter alia because it disclosed an alleged unique method of random selection -- virtual spinning of a notional non-visible inner reel. However, a review of the specification and asserted claims indicates that the inventor never actually provided the structure or programming for this process. Consequently, Konami cannot establish that this selection process represents an inventive concept or new technology (or selection process) directed to a generic slot game.
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that claims related to refreshing a phone's display are patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101.
While some have been speculating that this hints at a new console in the vein of the 3DS, there’s nothing in the language to indicate as such — the patent is for the software infrastructure, not for new hardware, so it could just as easily be for a mobile game or some kind of fancy Switch title (or even some sort of interconnectivity between the two, à la Jackbox Party Packs).