Author suing Ubisoft Over Assassin's Creed's Animus

[News Portal]

If you take a look at his experience, John Beiswenger seems like a pretty switched on kind of guy. His name is on patents for everything from indicators on trailers to early warning systems against bioterrorism. So it seems strange that he can't see that suing Ubisoft is just a bad idea. Arguing that the Animus system from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise was his idea, Beiswenger has demanded upwards of $1,000,000 from the company. That might sound like chump change for a company like Ubisoft, but he also wants to stop the release of Assassin's Creed 3 and all books, videos and works related to it. This reporter is greatly looking forward to Ubisoft's response.

Source: Rock, Paper Shotgun

Read full article by GON News

[MaddMoose]

What is Animus?

[Tera]

What is Animus?

A machine that reads your DNA to relive the experiences of your ancestors..

.. I think.

[wyver]

thats correct... also if he wanted to sue them he should of sued them back in 2007

[flabcab]

[Submariner]

thats correct... also if he wanted to sue them he should of sued them back in 2007

They have lots of money now from the franchise and he has drooling lawyers.

[dinofreak]

I'm thinking I should have a career change and become a patent troll.

[Joshsux]

Awesome, I hated the Assassins Creed series anyway, Hope he wins for the mega trollolol and anger it'll cause with people on here wanting the precious little game! ahaha

[GroggDogg]

what a ****

[elfalot]

While I don't want him to be stomped by Ubi, I would like him to be backhanded and told to wake up to himself (tho if he does actually mess up assassins creed then I'll be pi$$ed )

Anyway how can you own a patent on something like the animus (AFAIK there is no iota of proof that DNA holds actual memories like in AC)


EDIT : Damn, read the parts about patents and forgot about him being an author, I misunderstood the problem completely.

[Nekosan]

Isn't his patent invalid unless he can prove that it actually works (which it doesn't), you can't just make up imaginary inventions and patent them to later sue anyone who thinks of a similar imaginary idea.

[Lumen Melano]

What are you guys talking about? He hasn't patented an animus (or animus-like device). He is simply suing them for copyright infringement on a novel he released in 2002 that deals with a machine that allows the user to relive the memories of their ancestors.

http://www.johnbeiswenger.com/author/link.htm

Even still his prospects are pretty low. I imagine he is just hoping for an easy settlement for some quick cash.

[Freeride]

Awesome, I hated the Assassins Creed series anyway, Hope he wins for the mega trollolol and anger it'll cause with people on here wanting the precious little game! ahaha

You hated it? So that must mean you like it now right? Seeing the Assassins creed series is ongoing and you only hated it that must mean that you stopped being a douche somewhere along the track and realised its quite a good series.

[Marius]

Funny.

Also, this slots quite nicely into next week's legal article, which will look at this type of issue. Everything's coming up Milhouse.

[Otto-matic]

Everything's coming up Milhouse.

The lawsuit papers from Fox are in the post