Filed under: Business, Internet, Google
Google Talk's patent troubles
Ars Technica is reporting that Deleware patent farm Rates Technology, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that the
VoIP capabilities of Google Talk violate its patents. "The patents focus on the use of a centralized database with
pricing information for the purposes of determining the cheapest phone call carrier on the fly," says Ars, and RTI
claims it has over 700 licensees for its telecom patents and has been to court 25 times. Google says, "We believe
the lawsuit is without merit and we will defend against it vigorously," and I personally don't expect this to go
to well for RTI, but it will be interesting to watch. Google and RTI will meet in court in early February.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
