Sega Sues Simpsons

[antime]

Sega of America has filed a patent infringement suit over the game Simpsons Road Rage, alleging it deliberately imitates the Crazy Taxi game style which Sega has apparently patented. See also Reuters' story on the subject.

 

[CrazyGoon]

Don't think Sega will win this. If they do then how about Nintendo sue Sony for all the crap Mario Kart clones they have done...

Hahaha... sueing someone because they have used the same genre as you? That's sure what it looks like :flamethrower:

Edit: Hahaha ---> "Sega believes they are fully entitled to a cut of the game's earnings, and they want it off the shelves, too."They want the income the game generates but want it off the shelves so it can't make income" Crazy :huh

 

[axelblazeadam]

Go Sega take every penny they have :lol:

That game was the most blatent rip off I've ever seen.

 

[antime]

Lawsuits based on similarities tend not to work that well (Capcom sued Data East for copyright infringement over Fighter's History and lost), but this has the added twist of being a patent infringement suit so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Adrock]

Yep antime is right. If it was a simple matter of 'they copied our game' they would have no chance ever. But the fact they have the patent and a lot of reviews and experts within the industry said at the time that Simpsons Road Rage was almost exactly the same as Crazy Taxi all leads to an interesting legal battle.

 

[racketboy]

since they have a patent that is pretty specific, it sounds like they have a chance

 

[it290]

Hmm, I dunno, I don't think you can patent an idea per se.. I haven't looked at the patent, but it seems like it would apply more to the arcade wheel / shifter setup than the actual gameplay. Could be wrong though.. I doubt they'll win however, since copying gameplay styles is a major part of the industry.. not to mention if they wanted to enfore this they should have gone after Rockstar and GTA3 (taxi missions are directly ripped-off from CT). Ah well, this has more of a chance than Lady Miss Kier vs. Sega, that's for sure.

 

[antime]

You're right in that ideas can't be patented. This seems to be the patent in question and it describes things like pedestrians jumping out of the way and the big arrow showing directions.

 

[KuKzz]

Pedestrians, arrows....sounds like Midtown Madness series to me. Microsoft is next ? 🙂

 

[Taelon]

That, and whoever made Midnight Club 2. More pedestrians and LOTS of arrows. Huge ones. lol

But I'm surprised Sega could get a patent on their Crazy Taxi idea at all... in Europe for example they just ruled that software couldn't be patented.

 

[it290]

Midnight Club 2 - Rockstar again. That game had pedestrians though? Man, I don't remember any. Got to play that again.

 

[Alexvrb]

Originally posted by Taelon@Dec 8, 2003 @ 01:24 AM

That, and whoever made Midnight Club 2. More pedestrians and LOTS of arrows. Huge ones. lol

But I'm surprised Sega could get a patent on their Crazy Taxi idea at all... in Europe for example they just ruled that software couldn't be patented.

So in Europe its ok to make blatant clones of say, MS Office? That has the exact same functionality down to every last button?

 

[antime]

No it's not, it means that inventions in the form of computer programs or algorithms can't be patented under current EU legislation.

 

[Alexvrb]

Hmm. While we're on the subject, interesting actions by judges in Finland and Sweden - Change your name, Lindows!

 

[antime]

That's a trademark dispute. I don't know enough about Finnish or EU trademark laws to say anything about the case, but I believe the courts here usually side with the trademark holder so in that respect it wasn't such a big surprise that the preliminary injunction was granted.