TWeaK
- 1 Post
- 203 Comments
Obviously this depends on the exact details of the patents, which are all in Japanese, as well as the specifics of Japanese patent laws.
However, patents only last for 20 years, and they are undermined by public disclosure before filing. The first Pokemon game came out more than 20 years ago. However^2 not all of the features in the patents were present in the original games. All 3 patents were first filed in 2021, well after many of these features were established.
The first patent is about aiming something and entering into a fight mode. This wasn’t in the original game. Aiming at enemies and entering a fight mode almost certainly existed before Pokemon (Final Fantasy perhaps). Furthermore, Palworld doesn’t really have a fight mode - it isn’t a turn based game but real time. Throwing a sphere is just one way to start a “battle” but there is no mode change between “explore” and “battle” modes because they are functionally the same in Palworld. Pokemon Go and Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, which were all around in 2018, would seem to amount to public disclosure that undermines this patent.
The second patent has more detail about catching Pokemon outside of battles. This might have some elements of Palworld gameplay in it. However, again we have prior art that predates the patent.
The third patent is about riding characters. This has certainly existed in other games before Pokemon and before this patent. Off the top of my head, World of Warcraft had you riding mounts, Final Fantasy had you riding Chocobos, and Mega Man let you ride Rush.
However the big issue with all of these is that these challenges are always better off done before the patent is granted. With the patents established it is a massive uphill struggle trying to get them withdrawn. Given that each charge is only for $33,000, so about $100,000 total, I expect a settlement will be reached instead of going on this fight.
Yeah the newer they are, the more frivolous they are - especially since you could argue the release of games using those patents amounts to public disclosure.
However, you’re still left in the situation where an established patent is very solid and difficult to challenge, even when it should never have been granted in the first place.
5 mil yen is about $32k. In total they’re suing for about $100k.
I would imagine the 3rd patent at the very least should be invalidated - riding characters in video games predates Pokemon (MegaMan riding Rush comes to mind, as well as World of Warcraft [although I don’t know if the patent predates WOW mounts]). However the nature of patents is that once they’re granted they are very difficult to dismiss.
The other two are more tricky. Throwing balls at something us a uniquely Pokémon idea, I think, and the aiming one would come down to the technicalities of the patent itself, which is all Japanese to me.
The page you link to talks about the search results that come at the top of the page, eg a Wikipedia or Trip Advisor result. The actual search itself comes from Bing, and it’s more than likely that the top page banner also is processed via Bing.
Edit: However, the Wikipedia page does provide more detail, which proves you right and my assumption wrong:
DuckDuckGo’s results are a compilation of “over 400” sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); but none from Google. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites such as Wikipedia, to populate knowledge panel boxes to the right of the search results.
If I understand DDG correctly, they use Microsoft Bing as their backend for search results. So while they may be branded DDG, the results are in fact out of DDG’a control. It also means we are more subject to Microsoft’s privacy policy than we are to DDG’s.
This is exactly right. DDG is basically a front end that’s supposed to strip out identifying information and then submit your request to Microsoft. [Edit:] Apparently they have expanded from this, according to their Wikipedia page. [/E]
However, after seeing TV ads for DDG not that long ago I kind of lost what faith I had left in them. As a rule of thumb, I’ve never trusted products and services advertised on TV - TV advertising is expensive, and the business expects to make that expense back and then some from their customers.
The lawsuit wasn’t coming because they were in a strong grey area with one physical copy per digital. By offering unlimited copies they directly invited a lawsuit.
And then their legal defense had absolutely no competency behind it. They didn’t come with any legal principles, they basically just said “we shouldn’t be punished because we’re nice”, and then they tried the same style of argument during appeal, basically throwing money away on legal expenses. All the while they were campaigning for donations - the people that supported them were paying the lawyers, not for the IA’s regular activities.
If only they hadn’t shot themselves so hard in the foot during covid with their book lending, and dug the hole so much deeper with their piss poor handling of the lawsuit.
While I do very much support what they do, I’d be reluctant to give them money, if only because it might go to paying their dumbass lawyer.
I mean it’s not beside the point if the reason for not publishing on the App Store was money.
I had no idea about Altstore going in, but looking into it it’s all done over Patreon, and I can’t find reference to any fees you mention. The most expensive Patreon tier for them is $8.50 per month, or $102 per year, however $3 (at an early bird rate) or $36 per year is enough to allow you to use 3rd party hosts for your app.
No I get the feeling that Geralt won’t be, it’s described as a new trilogy. However that doesn’t really fill me with hope based on the general shifting of attitudes from management at CDPR. Also, with previous Witcher games they had a story to develop from, I’m not confident they can build as good of a story from scratch by themselves.
I really do need to replay Cyberpunk, and maybe even buy the expansion. I was certainly disappointed that my preorder didn’t come with the expansion, like all the Witcher games did, else I probably would have replayed already. However ultimately my problems with the game were less about the bugs and such and more about the lack of content fleshing out the world, and the lack of consequences for actions - I don’t think that’s changed very much through all the patches.
Witcher 3 was great because it felt like a full world, Cyberpunk is closer to Just Cause, a city where you complete somewhat repetitive missions. Cyberpunk is much better than Just Cause, but it didn’t come close to living up to Witcher 3.
I dunno man, CDPR have lost their sheen a little bit for me. Not specifically because of Cyberpunk, but just their general behaviour as a company.
I hope it’s good, but I’m not going to count on it. Also I bet they won’t carry on the same customer loyalty stuff they did before - I got a preorder discount for Witcher 3 for owning 1 & 2, and the game was eventually updated to include all DLC and morph into the GOTY edition.
Also, the Witcher storyline was pretty well wrapped up after 3. I worry this will be more of a cash grab than anything else.
Pure wild speculation if I’m honest, however I’d be more surprised if I was completely wrong. It’s always seemed sketchy the way Google have basically said “Use our phone, it’s more secure!” with their Nexus and Pixel phones - this was long after the time Google stopped not being evil. At best, the security problems have simply changed manufacturer. Also, Google have a history of undermining development of circumvention, eg hiring the developer of MicroG and forcing him to stop development as a term in his contract.
The diva part is widely known, GrapheneOS developers don’t play nice with the rest of the custom development community. So, while I can’t substantiate any actual deal between them and Google, it’s the perfect recipe.
Even worse still: many online banking services require you to connect to Google, basically through the back end captcha system. You never have to solve the puzzle or click on traffic lights, but they do still associate you and your web browser with having an account with that bank.
However also, you can often use root with banking apps, you just have to set it up right. Configure Magisk to operate in the Zygisk domain with a deny list, and add the apps to that.
- TWeaK to
- •
- 1Y
- •
Looking it up, Palworld was announced in 2021, but not released (under early access) until 2024. However they were apparently designing the game back in 2020, if not earlier.