• troed
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    132 months ago

    IANAL - but I’ve worked for Big Company and have gone through the patent process a few times. A patent isn’t what’s written in the supporting text and abstract. It’s only the exact thing written out in the claims.

    First claim from the patent the abstract is from:

    1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program causing a computer of an information processing apparatus to provide execution comprising:

      controlling a player character in a virtual space based on a first operation input;

      in association with selecting, based on a selection operation, a boarding object that the player character can board and providing a boarding instruction, causing the player character to board the boarding object and bringing the player character into a state where the player character can move, wherein the boarding object is selected among a plurality of types of objects that the player character owns;

      in association with providing a second operation input when the player character is in the air, causing the player character to board an air boarding object and bringing the player character into a state where the player character can move in the air; and

      while the player character is aboard the air boarding object, moving the player character, aboard the air boarding object, in the air based on a third operation input.

    Exactly everything described above must be done in that exact same way for there to be an infringement.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 months ago

      That seems a bit more easy to get around. It is still crazy to think that you have to check your whole game design against that many patents 😅

      • Dr. Moose
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        152 months ago

        it’s stupid. I’m convinced that people who oversee software patents don’t even know what’s a computer.

        • I Cast Fist
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          52 months ago

          Of course they do! It’s those weird white boxes that nerdy nerds nerd about with numbers and shit

        • @[email protected]
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          12 months ago

          More than likely.
          And then you have people like Albert Einstein that worked in the patent office.
          (Obviously not software)

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      Which sounds like mount selection based on if onland==True: landmountlist, else: airmountlist. ??? Can you really patent “I used an if statement to change what the mount button does based on a condition”

      Boy, better fucking patent that fucking pure genius there’s no way anyone could program that without having copied us.

      Like I fucking hope I misread that.

      • troed
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        32 months ago

        All of the statements in the claim need to be fulfilled - so while that if looks correct it’s only a very small part of the actions described. Example:

        in association with selecting, based on a selection operation,[…], wherein the boarding object is selected among a plurality of types of objects that the player character owns;