United Kingdom telecommunications company Valve, Steam violated four patents-Steam,Valve-IT information
Headquartered in the United Kingdom multinational communications company of United Kingdom Telecommunications (British Telecoms, hereinafter referred to as BT) claims that Villefort software company (Valve Software, hereinafter referred to as Valve) used the invention of technology. Therefore, the company charges Valve including "Steam, Steam Chat, the game library and Steam live Steam information", "most of the products and services" for their owned patent infringement.
In the complaint, BT to think Valve detailing the violations of four patents. First is the "Ji Tingsi patent" (Gittins Patent), patent this technology allows the user to "via a single portal enables direct access to multi-platform services and content. "In short, BT think Steam from an external game and video services is a violation of the patent. Is claiming infringement of the patent is under aims to improve audience receiving information and data related to "Newton's patent" (Newton Patent). In particular, the classification for information will be stored on the server and waits for the call instruction, but users at certain intervals frequency automatic request messages from the server. Because the Valve provides its users with a call control protocol (call control Protcol) to adjust the different communication mechanisms, so BT think "patent beidasi" also were violated.
BT explains, "beidasi patent" correlation technique and its application in Steam as follows: call control protocol (call control Protcol) based on user login status on the basis of when users log out of the system, agreement start; at this point, the sustainability information communication mechanism will be opened, and at least one non-continuous information communication mechanism will be shut down. Last item was referring to Barkley patent (Buckley Patent). According to BT for Valve services analysis, the latter due to the introduction of multi user system, so that two or more independent station data can be displayed on a public display, thus violating the patent.
Not only owned by Valve's Steam platform but, like YouTube, Twitch, Blizzard's Battle.net platform, Apple's app store (Apple's App Store) and millions of content platforms, online live streaming platform also used these BT claimed to have patents. BT does not say whether they also denounced a patent for these companies.
BT said they tried as early as October 2015 subject for contact with the Valve. Specific communication situations described in the complaint are as follows:
"On October 8, 2015, the United Kingdom telecommunications company's Chief intellectual property counsel had written regarding patent infringement Villefort software company's General Counsel, and clearly inform Villefort software company whose product infringement.
"In the lawyer's letter of October 8, 2015, contains a review of the disputed patent and Villefort software company representatives claim of infringement claims one by one chart.
"Villefort, the software company's General Counsel and Villefort, representatives of software companies have not United Kingdom telecommunications company letter of October 8, 2015 to have no response. ”
Although this incident may seem like just another familiar "patent fish", but the United Kingdom telecommunications company as one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world (though the degree of size is controversial) still has to be reckoned with influence.
英国电信公司起诉Valve，称Steam侵犯其四项专利 - Steam,Valve - IT资讯
总部设在英国的跨国通信公司英国电信（British Telecoms，以下简称BT）声称维尔福软件公司（Valve Software，以下简称Valve）使用了其发明的科技。因此，该公司控诉Valve旗下包括“Steam游戏库、Steam聊天、Steam信息和Steam直播功能”在内的“大部分产品和服务”对其拥有的专利造成侵犯。
在诉状中，BT对其认为Valve侵犯的四项专利进行了详述。首当其冲的是“吉庭斯专利”（Gittins Patent），这项技术专利允许用户“通过单一门户便可直接获取到多平台的服务和内容。”简而言之，BT认为Steam自外部提供游戏及视频资源的服务皆侵犯了该项专利。下项被声称侵权的专利是旨提高受众接收信息及数据相关度的“牛顿专利”（Newton Patent）。具体来说，服务器中的信息将被分类储存并等待调用指令，而用户将以一定的时间间隔频率自动从服务器请求消息。由于Valve为其用户提供了呼叫控制协议（call control protcol）来调节不同的信息沟通机制，因此BT认为“贝达斯专利”也遭到了侵犯。
BT解释到，“贝达斯专利”相关技术在Steam中的应用实例如下：呼叫控制协议（call control protcol）建立在检测用户登录状态的基础上，当用户登出系统时，协议启动；此时，持续性信息沟通机制将被开启，而至少一种非持续式信息沟通机制将被关闭。最后一项被提及的是巴克利专利（Buckley Patent）。据BT对Valve服务的分析，后者由于引入多用户显示系统，使两个以上的独立工作站的数据可在一个公共显示器上展示，因而侵犯了该专利。
除了Valve旗下的Steam平台外，如YouTube、Twitch、Blizzard's Battle.net平台、苹果应用商店（Apple's App Store）以及全球无数的内容平台、在线直播平台也都使用了这些BT声称拥有的专利。而BT并未表态是否会同时对这些公司进行专利声讨。
BT还称他们早在2015年十月就尝试就此事与Valve进行联络。诉状中描述的具体沟通情况如下：
“在2015年10月8日，英国电信公司的知识产权首席法律顾问曾就专利侵权一事去函维尔福软件公司的总法律顾问，并明确地告知维尔福软件公司其产品存在侵权。
“在2015年10月8日的律师函中，包含对此次争议专利的综述并就维尔福软件公司侵权代表申索事宜附逐项索赔图表。
“维尔福软件公司总法律顾问及维尔福软件公司的代表并未对英国电信公司2015年10月8日去函有任何回应。”
虽然这个事件可能看起来只是另一起常见的“专利钓鱼”，但英国电信公司作为世界上规模最大电信公司之一（尽管其规模大小程度存在争议）仍然具有不容小觑的影响力。