Keeping tabs on the prospect of another Castlevania game in the works? Then here's another tidbit that Konami Digital may have thrown our way: another registered trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been found to be bearing the title Castlevania on it. Castlevania Judgment, to be exact. All the details in the full article, so you'd better hurry.

We never know what Capcom has up its sleeves - one day it'd be announcing Street Fighter 4, and then revealing a Bionic Commando remake the next. An intriguing tidbit just came up, which is a trademark filing for "Spyborgs" that may hint at the company's next project. More details after the jump.

Even after suing gaming companies and retailers over Guitar Hero, Gibson Guitar is still in a roll with its legal bulldozer. Claiming that Rock Band (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) violated their concert simulator patent, Gibson has already added Harmonix, MTV Networks, and Electronic Arts to its "To-Sue" list. More details in the full article!

Suits and countersuits, statements and counter-statements have flown back and forth between the camps of Gibson Guitar and Activision for patent infringement. Today's update on the issue centers on a recently filed suit against retailers of the game. The defendants? Wal-Mart, Amazon, Kmart, GameStop, Target, and Toys "R" Us. Check out the entire story at the full article.

Despite the amount of heat Activision has been getting lately with the patent violation lawsuit filed by Gibson against it, the video game company coolly replied with its own statement regarding the accusations. You can read all about Activision's response in our full article after the jump.

Activision is definitely taking the hits nowadays. First it was Harmonix lodging a royalty suit with the company - now, Gibson Guitars, maker of fine musical axes for those of us ready to rock, has just filed a patent suit with them. It seems that the Guitar Hero franchise is infringing on one of their patents, made back during 1999. Check out all the details in the full article.

With Sega filing a patent registration for the name "R-Tuned Ultimate Street Racing", it is very likely that the gaming software company is creating a new racing franchise that's still under wraps as of this reporting.

What this could mean, however, is pretty much fair game since there's no supporting news tidbit about the patent. There are just so many possibilities behind the patent (as well as a possibility of the patent not being used in a product). It could be a game, or a Western port of a Japanese racing title; it could also be a game for arcade cabinets. Again, everything is possible.

We may not know for sure what exactly to expect, but with at least three game shows due in the coming months, most notable of which are the Leipzig Convention and Tokyo Game Show, we'll eventually find out.

 

Xandros, a creator of Linux operating systems for home, business and educational use, signed an agreement last Monday with Microsoft for a patent cross-licensing deal. The agreement would allow Novell and Xandros, among others, to license Microsoft IP for development of their Linux-based operating systems. But the most important part to note is that the licensing also works the other way around.

Its CEO, Andreas Typaldos, said last Thursday that it didn't see its Linux distribution in violation of Microsoft's patent claims, despite making a move to join Novell in the cross-licensing venture with the Redmond giant. The Linux community has eyes fiercely fixed on Xandros, maintaining a stand that Typaldos can only put as "you shouldn't really be talking to the devil."

Earlier, Microsoft did claim that Linux was in violation of 235 of its patents, although it has yet to reveal those details. Typaldos has admitted that they have not revealed any of the patents in violation to Xandros, although he sure that Linux does not violate a single patent by Microsoft.

"We did not discuss patents [with Microsoft] and we don't think Linux violates any patents and we were not asked about it. It is a non-issue for us," said Typaldos. But the Linux community frowned on Xandros and claimed that the deal erodes open source licensing provisions - particularly those revolving around intellectual property issues.

The Free Software Foundation is now making a new draft to the GNU General Public License (GPL) to prohibit such patent deals in the future.

 Last week, Microsoft issued a statement that the Linux and Open Office makers could be violating hundreds of patents with the open-source development of the two popular software sets, prompting news sites and blogs to issue different reactions.

For their part, the Linux foundation didn't take it well. As a matter of fact, their general ire was invoked, and they're as unfazed as ever in the face of a potential patent war. An article in businessweek written by a Linux community member proves so.

The article described Microsoft as a "threatened giant" and a "rational actor" all in one. According to the analysis, Microsoft makes about US$34 million a day mainly on the strength of its Windows OS and Office application suite. When these two big assets are under competition, measures must be taken to quell the uprising.

The article, echoing other Linux-community responses,  described Microsoft's action as fear, uncertainty and doubt-causing measures to scare off people who want to make the move to open source software. That way, even if they only delay the ship-jump, the giant would have saved a bundle already.

The article also pointed to the current patent system as a flawed one that can be abused by powerful companies to have their way with smaller competitors. This, in a sense, stagnates the competition and leaves little motivation to innovate.

As a parting shot, the article stated that the Linux Foundation is willing and ready to use its considerable resources to defend its turf and fore counter-claims against Microsoft. The article also urged Microsoft to cooperate in improving software patent laws instead of resorting to the tactics that it uses now.

Microsoft tried to light a fire a few days back, saying free software like Linux violate 235 of their patents. Without fear, Linux creator Linus Torvalds stepped up to the challenge and say a few things.

Torvalds threw the allegations back at Microsoft, saying, "It's certainly a lot more likely that Microsoft violates patents than Linux does." With big M not stating specifically which patents the Linux OS violates, there's no reason for Torvalds to back down.

"Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, 'nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!'" said Torvalds.

If given the same review about violating patents, Torvalds believes that Microsoft would find itself infringing patents from various other companies.

"Basic operating system theory was pretty much done by the end of the 1960s. IBM probably owned thousands of really 'fundamental' patents," says the Linux creator, which would mean Microsoft is as culpable in violating patents as much as Linux.