On November 10th, Bareis Technologies, LLC filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts and Disney Interactive Studios, claiming that various games, including Tom Clancy, SOCOM and NASCAR titles, infringe upon a patent filed in 1996. "Optical disk having speech recognition templates for information access" describes a process "integrating automatic speech recognition technologies into optical disk players for command and control purposes."
As is typical with lawsuits of this nature, the plaintiff is seeking "no less than a reasonable royalty" for the supposed use of this "stolen" technology. Should the case make it to court, the plaintiff will have a few hurdles to overcome. Primarily, lawyers will have to prove how a patent largely targeted towards accessing specific music tracks on audio CDs is applicable to the video games in question.
Considering it's been over seven years since the debut of the first SOCOM game, it's surprising that the plaintiff has waited so long to file this suit. Perhaps it's telling that the company going forward with the lawsuit has done so little in the thirteen years since filing the trademark that it has no web presence whatsoever.
[Via GamePolitics]
Ubisoft, Sony, EA and Disney sued over voice recognition patent
by Andrew Yoon 
on Nov 17th 2009 4:06PM
31
Reader Comments (31)
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:10PM (Unverified) said
Hope these idiots lose. That's a cheap shot to get money out of these companies.
Almost as bad as the Immersion case.
Reply
Almost as bad as the Immersion case.
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:30PM sonicspike41 said
They most likely will lose or have the case thrown out of court. The guy suing would have to prove that his patent is unique enough to even still matter after all this time. All the companies have to do is offer compelling evidence that his "patent" is too generic and that it should be made publicly available to use.
Based on what's been said in this article alone, that doesn't seem to hard for the big companies to do. If he perhaps patented a specific method of doing this, like say a specific application/program that they ripped off or cloned, then he'd stand a much better chance.
Reply
Based on what's been said in this article alone, that doesn't seem to hard for the big companies to do. If he perhaps patented a specific method of doing this, like say a specific application/program that they ripped off or cloned, then he'd stand a much better chance.
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:41PM (Unverified) said
Yeah, it seems far to simple an idea (like patenting the pencil) to ever get a victory in court.
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Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:12PM RobS the 3rd said
And another patent squatter tries to bilk money out of people who actually produce something.
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Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:15PM s ls said
I remember playing SOCOM 2 in jr high trying to command my team with the Sony USB headset.. literally yelling "BRAVO" into the mic over and over again until I realized tapping "X" was easier much easier and I wouldn't get yelled by my parents to keep it down. It was neat when it worked though.
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Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:15PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said
Do i speak for everyone when I say:
FFS! "&"& "!I£"*&£^"!*!&"^*£^"&^&£^^"9!!! STOP WASTING PEOPLES TIME FROM BLOODY 1996!
Reply
FFS! "&"& "!I£"*&£^"!*!&"^*£^"&^&£^^"9!!! STOP WASTING PEOPLES TIME FROM BLOODY 1996!
Posted: Nov 18th 2009 11:19AM Dismissile said
If I could comprehend a word of what you just said then I might be more willing to let you speak for me.
Reply
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:45PM sonicspike41 said
Sorry, must have crossed the wrong wires last time I was giving him a diagnostic check on his AI systems. Let me just... there, that oughta fix him.
Oh, no, wait... I think that might have just turned him into a terminator. Shit. Well it was nice knowing you all.
Reply
Oh, no, wait... I think that might have just turned him into a terminator. Shit. Well it was nice knowing you all.
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:17PM GiantGamer said
I guess he got tiered at telling his video games to worship him as patent holder supreme.
I wonder if Disney would be interested in giving him the Disney Interactive Studio profits for the year. (I.E. the 100 or so million $ lost this year.)
G_G
Reply
I wonder if Disney would be interested in giving him the Disney Interactive Studio profits for the year. (I.E. the 100 or so million $ lost this year.)
G_G
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:19PM MasterYogurt said
When will these squatters learn that a patent on a technology isn't a patent on an idea?
Just because you devise some method of achieving something, and another person happens to create something remarkably similar, doesn't mean you get cash. How often do these lawsuits even get serious consideration?
Reply
Just because you devise some method of achieving something, and another person happens to create something remarkably similar, doesn't mean you get cash. How often do these lawsuits even get serious consideration?
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:19PM Uphillbothways said
You know what, I'm going to copyright time-travel via reaching light-speed. I'm never gonna get it working, but it's a neat idea and that seems to be all you really need to get something by the copyright office (that and a fancy diagram and description). If someone ever does work it out, they'll hear from my lawyer.
Reply
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:25PM Uphillbothways said
Wait a second... that's not going to work. Whoever invents time-travel is already going to have the patent on it.
Shit.
Reply
Shit.
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:28PM (Unverified) said
Sorry...but I've got the patent on Hyperspace travel.
You owe me twelve bucks.
Reply
You owe me twelve bucks.
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:42PM (Unverified) said
The Sith held the patent before this planet was inhabited...
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Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:45PM Uphillbothways said
I know Warlock. That was the essence of the joke is was making in my second post. :-)
Reply
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:24PM (Unverified) said
Disney's got one of the best legal teams around, but they need it.
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Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:39PM (Unverified) said
they need the best legal team after having dark characters with big biege lips and big white eyes.
Reply
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:29PM commonperson said
And what do I want to bet that they filed this claim in Texas? God, I pray that some day the US will reform it's patent laws. They are one of the most broken systems in the world. It does nothing but stiffle innovation and you get pattent trolls like this who scrounge around and try and find something that vaguely matches the technology they pattent (some times it's little more then a vague idea) and claim it was stolen. Even if the creator never heard of them, came up with the technology using a completly different methodology, and applied something that was never actually USED by the pattent holder!
Protecting intellectual properties is important but it has to be balanced, this is why people file suit in Texas in the US or Australia when filling these things internationaly. Texas has a history of siding with complainints as does Australia when dealing with international law. You start with a "home team advantage" when filling there. I don't know it just ticks me off.
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Protecting intellectual properties is important but it has to be balanced, this is why people file suit in Texas in the US or Australia when filling these things internationaly. Texas has a history of siding with complainints as does Australia when dealing with international law. You start with a "home team advantage" when filling there. I don't know it just ticks me off.
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:45PM ducttapeBigSexy said
Sorry, but I'm going to have to side with Bareis Technologies, LLC on this one. Sure, voice recognition software has been around since 1952, and optical media has been around since 1958, but only the geniuses at Bareis Technologies, LLC could have come up with the idea of distributing voice recognition software via optical media!
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Posted: Nov 17th 2009 4:58PM (Unverified) said
Just like Apple invented the MP3 player, right? ;)
Reply
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 5:22PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said
Haha :D Then let me translate:
Do i speak for everyone when I say:
For Flaming (this 'f' can be interpretted in any way) Sake! (Obscene language which basically means:) By the heavens above and all things that taste as sweet as candy!!! STOP WASTING PEOPLES TIME (bringing back pointless issues) FROM BLOODY 1996 (In an attempt to get money for free)!
Reply
Do i speak for everyone when I say:
For Flaming (this 'f' can be interpretted in any way) Sake! (Obscene language which basically means:) By the heavens above and all things that taste as sweet as candy!!! STOP WASTING PEOPLES TIME (bringing back pointless issues) FROM BLOODY 1996 (In an attempt to get money for free)!
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 7:20PM Cap Morgan said
All patents regarding processes should be banned.
I will patent the process of controlling a computer with your mind.
So now years later when someone actually does it, all their fruits are mine!!!!!!
Reply
I will patent the process of controlling a computer with your mind.
So now years later when someone actually does it, all their fruits are mine!!!!!!
Posted: Nov 17th 2009 7:48PM Starcade said
It seems to me DARPA's Spoken Language Systems project DRAGON predates this patent by a good number of years. It started in the late 70s and or early 80s. DRAGON eventually became DragonDictate, which evolved into Dragon Naturally Speaking.
There's a progress report on DARPA SLS back in 1991 that talks about speech recognition on a CD-ROM.
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology-new/H/H91/H91-1088.pdf
This patent in the case says it was filed in 1996 and approved in 1997. It states that "present day" (I assume 1996) optical discs do not have speech recognition templates, which apparently is untrue.
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There's a progress report on DARPA SLS back in 1991 that talks about speech recognition on a CD-ROM.
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology-new/H/H91/H91-1088.pdf
This patent in the case says it was filed in 1996 and approved in 1997. It states that "present day" (I assume 1996) optical discs do not have speech recognition templates, which apparently is untrue.
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