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Unity patents ECS

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Re: Unity patents ECS

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to think that explaining the system is the same as justifying it. For example, saying "it costs $500K" constitutes minimizing that sum or calling it ordinary and reasonable. Neither is true. I don't need to pile on the condemnations in every sentence. As for what "something" is: I happen to be retired while you probably will be living with the patent system for a few years yet. So don't just say "someone sho…

Well you did say: > The defendant's standard tactic is usually to file for IPR, or PTAB reexamination of the patent, which is like a trial without a courtroom. For it to be the standard tactic, that implies a worldview in which defendants have that tactic as an option, and that's where the impression you think most defendants have access to that level of assets comes from. But once you've explained the fees, it becom…

OK, you're offended by the word "standard." I get that. If I said that criminal defendants' "standard" tactic is to stall and hope the witnesses forget about it (I don't know if that's true, actually), you would be offended because really poor ones can't get out on bail? I wouldn't say "too bad for them." The legal system is well-known to be stacked against poor people on almost every level, and even Charles Dickens was not the first to write about it.

This is Hacker News, not Patent Law 101. I'm not obligated to explain every aspect of the system in a comment.

I gather you think there's something new or unique in your comments about poor defendants. There is not. People have been saying it since the 90s. You are preaching to the already-converted.

Finally, if you read my paper on SSRN (which I've cited here many times), you'd see that "programmers' standard toolbox of techniques" is what I called out as something missing from the law.

That paper got cited in the Checkpoint amicus brief to SCOTUS in the CLS Bank case. That's an example of doing "something" but I will admit it's not much.

If you really wanted to do more, you'd start or join a political movement to "abolish software patents." There already are such organizations.

Re: Unity patents ECS

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you did say: > The defendant's standard tactic is usually to file for IPR, or PTAB reexamination of the patent, which is like a trial without a courtroom. For it to be the standard tactic, that implies a worldview in which defendants have that tactic as an option, and that's where the impression you think most defendants have access to that level of assets comes from. But once you've explained the fees, it becom…

OK, you're offended by the word "standard." I get that. If I said that criminal defendants' "standard" tactic is to stall and hope the witnesses forget about it (I don't know if that's true, actually), you would be offended because really poor ones can't get out on bail? I wouldn't say "too bad for them." The legal system is well-known to be stacked against poor people on almost every level, and even Charles Dickens…

And lastly: I'm done here. If you want the last word, go ahead and have it.

Re: Unity patents ECS

#173

Patent lawyer here. There is a lot of dubious stuff already in this thread, so be careful with legal opinions from people on the internet. Some relevant claim language is below. Of course a lot of this stuff has been known for a while, but you have to have everything together--or an evidenced argument that combining things in this way would have been obvious--before you can conclude anything about the validity of the…

[deleted]

Re: Unity patents ECS

#174

It's indeed really surprising to see them _patenting ECS_. Unity's ECS is a lot about cache-friendliness, not just simple entity-compoenent-system, though.

The whole point of ECS is cache-friendliness, so it's kind of the same. Besides there is nothing novel in their implementation. Putting frequently accessed component together is quite an old technique.

Oh, I thought the general definition of ECS is just about how to organize stuff. Or is that EC?

Re: Unity patents ECS

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait just one second... they managed to actually get a completely generic description of ECS into the claims? EDIT: yes, yes they did. What you see above is in fact clam 1, in it's entirety. This is worse than usual. Usually "X patents (common thing)" headlines actually mean "X patents (common thing with weird twist)," which is a great deal less severe. This really looks like Unity got an actual patent on the actual…

Not really. To me the novelty in the first claim is that they have a system which automatically determines an optimal memory layout, even in the face of new combinations of components within a newly created entity. A typical hand-crafted ECS system wouldn't likely infringe -- it's more likely that the memory layout was defined in advance. I guess this will be a major roadblock to Unreal Engine offering such an automa…

But that is exactly what an archetypal ECS is! It is used to determine an optimal memory layout with whatever combinations you throw in!
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