Technology

1373 readers

189 users here now

Which posts fit here?

Anything that is at least tangentially connected to the technology, social media platforms, informational technologies and tech policy.

Rules

1. English only

Title and associated content has to be in English.

2. Use original link

Post URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.

3. Respectful communication

All communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.

4. Inclusivity

Everyone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

5. Ad hominem attacks

Any kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.

6. Off-topic tangents

Stay on topic. Keep it relevant.

7. Instance rules may apply

If something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.

Companion communities

[email protected]
[email protected]

Icon attribution | Banner attribution

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Zynga owes IBM $45M after using 1980s patented technology for hit games (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (10 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (5 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It expired recently https://patents.google.com/patent/US7072849B1/en

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So how is it that a patent from 1989 only expired in 2023?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I not going to pretend I understand patents but it looks like IBM just asked for an extension and got it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

There is a period between filing a patent and actually receiving it. Maybe you've seen the phrase "patent pending" before. That likely plays a role here, if I read this right

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (6 replies)