News Post

EA Sued by White Knuckle IP, LLC for Patent Infringement

09:51 AM - January 22, 2015 by RaychelSnr

It seems that the NCAA Football and Tiger Woods video game series are just lightning rods for controversy. In a new lawsuit against Electronic Arts, White Knuckle IP, LLC is alleging that EA infringed upon their patent on how to update sports video games during the season.

According to the legal disclosure, prior games were fixed in their setup as of the day of release, and a player's outstanding performance or major trades during the season would not be reflected until the next version of the game was released. In the patent in question, it is said to solve the problem by downloading updates to game attributes that are based on real-life changes in players, teams, and venues.

Strangely enough, I'm not sure what exactly in NCAA Football 10-14 or Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10-14 that was updated in this manner to warrant such a lawsuit. It's also likely the suit is too broad to have any real chance -- as the games chosen and the patent being sued over almost don't seem to match up in any real way, and the vagueness of the actual text of the suit really doesn't lend much credence to it.

Regardless, we'll be looking for any new developments on this as time goes on.

Member Comments

# 1 teebee @ 01/22/15 11:19 AM

Not mentioned is Geekrosters, LLC suing WhiteKnuckle for stealing their roster updating ideas

# 2 Cletus @ 01/22/15 01:13 PM

This is why we're in for another big crash in videogames. We're getting less sports games, less quality control in games and more lawsuits.

# 3 ILuvMN81 @ 01/22/15 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cletus


	This is why we're in for another big crash in videogames. We're getting less sports games, less quality control in games and more lawsuits.

Totally agree. I feel like we're seeing this "hurry up and get it on the shelf, we can always patch it later" mentality from the publishers (and possibly retailers and anyone else with a vested interest). Sure, they patch it but...
1) while a good number of gamers are on-line connected, not all are so they're stuck with an unfinished product
2) The patches can make things worse

It's disappointing that we're not seeing the niche titles we did 10+ years ago. Believe it or not, I liked Arena Football and NCAA Baseball (the concept anyway). For the titles/sports we see, everything is an exclusive license, no competition...

The lawsuits are getting ridiculous. It still sounds like goodbye to college sports games and now this?

Only good that might come from a crash is that the industry might re-organize

...might...

# 4 enf471 @ 01/22/15 05:28 PM

The lawsuit is about the feature in NCAA that updates the stadium to have same weather as real life stadium.

# 5 enf471 @ 01/22/15 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teebee


	Not mentioned is Geekrosters, LLC suing WhiteKnuckle for stealing their roster updating ideas

The Patent doesn't have anything to do with updating rosters. And the patent was filed October 2002, which appears to predate Geekrosters.

# 6 Formula1Racing @ 01/22/15 11:27 PM

Man, I hate EA as much as the next guy but these lawsuits on EA are getting out of hand! I don't blame EA for not wanting to get involve in college video games anymore with all the frivolous claims on EA lately...SMH

# 7 mestevo @ 01/22/15 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cletus


	This is why we're in for another big crash in videogames. We're getting less sports games, less quality control in games and more lawsuits.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILuvMN81


	Totally agree. I feel like we're seeing this "hurry up and get it on the shelf, we can always patch it later" mentality from the publishers (and possibly retailers and anyone else with a vested interest). Sure, they patch it but... 1) while a good number of gamers are on-line connected, not all are so they're stuck with an unfinished product 2) The patches can make things worse It's disappointing that we're not seeing the niche titles we did 10+ years ago. Believe it or not, I liked Arena Football and NCAA Baseball (the concept anyway). For the titles/sports we see, everything is an exclusive license, no competition... The lawsuits are getting ridiculous. It still sounds like goodbye to college sports games and now this? Only good that might come from a crash is that the industry might re-organize ...might...

What does this have to do with the lawsuit? This is a patent troll trying to make a buck.

# 8 redcoffe @ 01/27/15 07:27 AM

the patent was filed October 2002.

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EA Sued by White Knuckle IP, LLC for Patent Infringement