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Zynga owes IBM $45M after using 1980s patented technology for hit games

2 years ago by BrikoX to c/technology

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

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UnityDevice 32 points 2 years ago

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.

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MossyFeathers 18 points 2 years ago

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?

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moody 9 points 2 years ago

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

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krigo666 16 points 2 years ago

Yeah, bullshit patents.

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huginn 10 points 2 years ago

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.

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wizardbeard 9 points 2 years ago

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.

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