In 1994, Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum patented a method for âcommunicating live while playing the same video game in separate locationsâ. In 2004, they sued Microsoft, accusing Xbox Live of infringing on that patent.
Now, five years later, the case is finally starting to heat up.
See, unlike many other cases of this ilk â which are often harmless â this one may have some teeth.
Why? Because in 2004, the two men not only sued Microsoft over Xbox Live, but Sony as well, claiming the PS2âs online network infringed on the same patent. And in April of this year, Sony settled with them for an undisclosed sum.
Whatâs more, Microsoft, rather than shrugging the case off with a team of mighty lawyers, have resorted to juvenile tricks, holding the case up for weeks in February 2009 over a single, innocent typo, and dumping 140,000 documents on Hochstein and Tenenbaum without an index.
Something tells me this may end up costing Microsoft a dollar or two, if only in the form of another âundisclosed sumâ.
If long-winded legal documents are your thing, you can read up on the various stages of the case here, here and here. [via PA]
