Software Patents and Video Games

I happened to catch the start of This American Life this evening, and it grabbed me.  For the first time I actually found the local NPR station streaming online and listened to the rest of it.  Not driving, not as background, but actually listening to a radio program, like people did 60 years ago.

The topic was software patents.  The undertone was that our system, originally developed to encourage invention and creativity, has been overtaken and is simply an arms race of epic proportions.  More and more companies exist whose business model is to gather patents (through filing or purchasing) and then go around politely asking every technology company in Silicon Valley to give them some money as a licensing fee, Or Else.  To defend themselves against these shakedowns, big companies get their own arsenal of patents to flaunt to would-be patent trolls. The hope is that this display of ammunition will persuade the trolls to move on to softer targets, lest they get counter-sued for infingement on one of their patents.

Ira Glass suggested that those suffering the most in this war are the startups, the people actually inventing something new, who get asked for exorbitant licensing fees at their most vulnerable early stage of existence.  It’s enough to wipe out lots of startups and discourage many, many more.

By the way, these are not patents on actual breakthrough inventions, these are patents on “downloading and uploading of video data through a wide area network” and that sort of thing.  Stuff that shouldn’t have been given a patent in the first place, but somehow was.

I’m wondering how this will affect game development.  A search on the USPTO website yields tons of video game related patents, but most are for hardware.  There are indeed some software ones including some design ones.  (I think I saw a patent for an “adrenaline meter” but I can’t find it right now.)

Currently, there isn’t enough money in indie console/PC game development for the sharks to smell blood in the water.  But I’m sure for mobile and social gaming, the arms race is on.  I just hope we have some patent reform before my company makes enough money to become a target.  Maybe I’m paranoid… we’ll see what happens.