Capcom Suing Koei Tecmo for Patent Infringement in over 50 Games

[Melf]

Capcom's drunk again!

Capcom has filed suit against Koei Tecmo alleging that the Dynasty Warriors publisher infringed on key Capcom patents in recent games, according to a Sankei report translated by Siliconera.

The patent in question refers to backwards compatible content being transferred from a game to its predecessor. Imagine the Genesis-era Sonic & Knuckles cartridges. If you connect one to a Sonic 2 cartridge, you can play as Knuckles in the older game, despite his first appearance coming well after Sonic 2 hit store shelves. A more recent, topical example would be Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends, a standalone expansion that could be linked with the original Dynasty Warriors 8 to add additional stages and characters to the older musou brawler.

Capcom's suit alleges that 50 Koei Tecmo games are in violation of the patent. The Street Fighter publisher is seeking 980 million yen (about $9.4 million) in restitution as well as a temporary ban on sales of several Koei Tecmo games.

[Chux]

LOL, capcom looks THIRSTY.

[YellerDog]

"THE ONLY WAY WE CAN DESCRIBE OUR PATENT IS TO POINT TO AN OLDER GAME MADE BY A DIFFERENT PUBLISHER ENTIRELY"

[Jeremy]

I'm pretty sure the article writer made the game comparisons - not the lawsuit.

[Shou]

Smell that desperation? That's a company who can longer make a hit.....turn back the clock 20 years ago to 1994....same thing but it was Data East and SSF2 wasn't selling

[Space Pirate Roberts]

KT should just make this go away by buying out Capcom.

[Shin Johnpv]

Did something happen with the Capcom execs that made the company go from one of the best devs/pubs out there to complete crap in 1 generation?

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Their series got stale and their best guys left. In that order.

[Shin Johnpv]

They were still making new series during the PS2 gen though. The PS2 gen alone saw the introduction of Chaos Legion, Devil May Cry, God Hand, Killer 7, PN03, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Maximo, Onimusha,and more. I realize a lot of that came form the best guys that up and left. I still feel like some kind of corporate atmosphere/climate had to have changed because usually your best guys don't all just up and leave.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Im pretty sure most of those did not make them money.