Sony, EA, Ubisoft, Disney named in patent suit

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Nov 17, 2009 3:35 pm PT

Texas-based Bareis Technologies contends SOCOM, Tom Clancy, NASCAR franchises violate protected disk-based speech recognition method.

Multiplayer has become widely recognized within the game industry as a crucial component for keeping a game in gamers' consoles. In turn, a core aspect of an effective multiplayer mode is letting gamers communicate with one another through voice chat. However, the method by which EA, Sony, Ubisoft, and Disney have been allowing gamers to chat has purportedly been implemented without the consent of the company that owns the patented technology.

Stick to hand signals, and everything should be OK.

Last week, Plano, Texas-based Bareis Technologies filed a suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on grounds that the aforementioned gaming companies are in violation of one of its patents for optical disk-based voice recognition. The patent, which was awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 1997, is described by Bareis as relating "to optical disks with speech recognition templates used to access information."

The suit specifically calls out a number of games from each of the companies as allegedly violating Bareis' patent. Ubisoft's Tom Clancy franchise is apparently a repeat offender, with games named including Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, Ghost Recon 2, and EndWar, among others. The suit also named Sony's SOCOM franchise, EA's NASCAR series, and Disney Interactive Studios' Phonics Quest.

Bareis is seeking damages from all four companies in the form of royalties, negotiated at a reasonable rate, as well as interest on said royalties, attorney fees, and other relief as deemed by the court.

170 Comments

  • gzcandyman

    Posted Dec 20, 2009 7:45 am PT

    Lets face it companies knew that it is cheaper to get sued later than to pay first... take them to the cleaner "BOYS"

  • wahyudil

    Posted Nov 20, 2009 12:39 am PT

    again .... another leecher

  • lostn

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 10:09 pm PT

    R34Vegeta

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 5:50 pm GMT

    "Read the patent and it does seem pretty valid, but it doesn't explain why they waited this long to actually file suit."

    The longer they wait, the more money they can extract. When the Wii reaches 100m units, it will get hit with another patent suit. The small opportunistic company owning the suit is waiting so they can maximize their profits. They get interest on royalties as well, so the longer they wait, the more interest. Getting paid just the royalties will net them less money than an infringement would because they will ask for extra damages.

  • cjasko94

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 6:33 pm PT

    Cmon Ubisoft and SONY are awesome!

  • electroban

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 3:40 pm PT

    It's a fair law suit, it's not asthough Ubisoft is going to use the unreal engine in a game without seeking complete licencse first. The same should go with any outsourced material a company uses that isn't part if their own development.

  • MrHatnClogs

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 9:54 am PT

    We should get a drinking game going on, a chug for each time a lawsuit happens in the video game industry, anybody up for this?

  • kamizuka

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 9:19 am PT

    i am happy that Disney is getting sued but i Hope Sony and Ubi get out of this

  • vipinbaadshah

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 3:49 am PT

    Wrong!!!Atleast Ubisoft has no hand in this, They can develop any software on their own

  • Ryouji_kaji

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 2:10 am PT

    This is all getting way out of hand. Basically people can put as vague a patent on anything they want. The patent company are just as much at fault here than the people suing. Are there suppose to be rules and regulations on what can and cannot be patented?

    I put a patent on undergarments that cover (but are not limited to) genitalia. So now anyone wearing or producing boxers, undies, knickers, panties, thongs etc, before or after I have made said patent... you all owe me money. See you in court.

  • Alucard7321

    Posted Nov 19, 2009 1:09 am PT

    Man it seems every month or two there is a lawsuit being filed by an American company - Honesty I think it's their idea of wiggling its way out of a recession...(But then again I was nearly sued by Jeremy Soule back in 2007 because I said I didn't like his music in PREY but loved his music in everything else so...)...depths humans sink to.

  • BlueFlameBat

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 10:25 pm PT

    Shut up! Shut up!! Shut up!!!
    I couldn't even read the whole article!! It seems Texas is becoming a breeding ground for court leeches!! At this point, I don't care if Sony, EA, UbiSoft, and Disney actually had spies or took the technology by gunpoint! I am sick of these damn lawsuits!!!

  • mike_on_mic

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 7:14 pm PT

    Optical Disc Voice Recognition, how is this different to Magnetic Disk Voice Recognition, or Solid State. We have had voice recognition technology for ages, sure it hasn't always been successful, but at the same time, how does implementing on a different storage medium make things different, it needs to load the program that accepts the input and begin intrepting the wave pattern of the voice sent. Would this process change base don the media it is on. And by naming so many people, they are either hoping for favourable results or out of court settlements. I can understand if there is a legitimate case for this, but I want to know HOW, do these people play these games and determine that it infringes their patent. Have they seen the code, or like raven28256 mentioned that it is so vague. Our patent is about how an optical disc can be used to store data that is then loaded and used to do wave form analysis on the incoming stream of audio.

    I hope they lose this one, really, it is just silly.

  • TheAustrian

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 5:24 pm PT

    Yet another ridiculous lawsuit from a company just looking to profit of the success of another. Why didn't you guys freak out back when SOCOM came out? Or when Halo 2 was using voice chat? Instead, you wait until you think you can make the biggest steal. Morons.

  • KillerWabbit23

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 3:39 pm PT

    Think of it as free advertising, not legal infringement. Anyway, this would just make more people sad if this was screwed over. I'm American, and I'm not proud to say that this can happen A LOT.

  • tyrrin

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 3:35 pm PT

    Another frivolous law suit! The American legal system is ridiculous...

  • Hitman2500

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 3:04 pm PT

    This is stupid

  • Alf

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 2:32 pm PT

    lol i love America. There's always one over there to amuse me ^^

  • xxsuperbananaxx

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:38 pm PT

    This is stupid

  • twistedmalice

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:26 pm PT

    These companies have been using this for years. Now Bareis wants to sue, I guess they need the money.

  • kamizuka

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 1:14 pm PT

    awww....i am going to sue game spot AGAIN for giving me a head-ache

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