Microsoft Full of Tricksy Hobbitses
posted Saturday Jul 11, 2009 by Scott Ertz
Microsoft's legal team has taken an interesting tactic in their most interesting lawsuit (to me... right now...). The lawsuit in question is over patent infringement (what's new) for "communicating live while playing the same video game in separate locations." Obviously this is all about Xbox Live and the Live chat option.
Microsoft has claimed that since the communication occurs through Xbox Live and not the videogame, that the patent does not apply. In support of their defense, they sent 140,000 documents to the plaintiff's attorneys, but it's ok because they included no index for what was included.
This is an interesting tactic, because it is the opposite of what has happened in the past. Normally Microsoft pays off people with decent cases against them and moves on with the technology and Sony is the one to fight a losing battle. In this case, when Sony was sued by the same pair over the PS2's network, they settled and Microsoft is fighting for nothing.