As expected, Warner Bros. ‘application for a Nemesis Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor patent has been granted.
IGN reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a problem notice, which is currently offline, on February 3, 2021, confirming that the patent goes into effect on February 23, 2021, with an option to maintain until 2035.
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As we reported last week, Warner Bros. has been trying to obtain approval for this patent since March 2016, although reference is made to it already in March 2015. Monolith Productions Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was released in September 2014.
The patent is dubbed “Nemesis characters, strong enemies, social vengeance and followers in computer games”, and is now attributed to Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. Its current status is listed as “pending”, but must be updated to reflect its approval. recent.
According to the list of patents, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection in November 2019. But Warner Bros stood firm and, in October 2020, a “Notice of Permission” was issued. This indicates that Warner was able to overcome the rejections, and the USPTO believes that the invention qualifies for a patent.
The revelation of the Nemesis patent, brought to light by the excellent video about the Nemesis system in the Game Maker’s Toolkit below, generated a debate about the mistakes and successes of Warner Bros. actions here.
“This is really disgusting, especially for a franchise that built its brilliant nemesis system on top of a bunch of replicated mechanics from other games,” Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell tweeted.
“Like all games. Because that’s how culture and creativity work. Be a better neighbor, WB.”
“Since I was forced to learn a little about it: a patent is not a copyright and having one does not necessarily mean that they will apply it or win a case on it,” Rami Ismail, co-founder of Vlambeer tweeted.
“What this means is that they have taken steps to ensure that they could legally and that in itself is ‘meh’ enough for me to hate it.”
“lmao what a lot of shit,” wrote Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer in Twitter Last week.
“If you take someone’s design and make a better version of it, you should win a trophy and a triumph on the streets and the people who made the previous version should applaud you and say, ‘wow, that was really cool.’ “
Has the patent prevented other developers from trying to create their own Nemesis-style system over the years? Tweets by narrative designer and writer Cat Manning suggests you may have:
“I looked at the patent and it is so broad that it is absurd! Several other emerging narrative systems that I saw and worked on could be described in their language! It probably wouldn’t be legally applicable, but I and other independent developers don’t have the money to to discover!
“I have no interest in copying all the fabric from the Nemesis system! Personally, there are a number of other things I would do differently. But the patent is so broad that I am still concerned that it is a license to prevent ANY similar work from being developed. ! “
In fact, many developers and publishers over the years have obtained patents for video game mechanics that appeared in later games. BioWare, for example, has a patent for the Mass Effect dialog wheel, but dialog wheels appeared in subsequent games. Sega once had a patent on the Crazy Taxi compass arrow, although it expired in 2018. Nintendo currently holds a patent on the Eternity Darkness health meter.
With the Nemesis system patent finally secured, thoughts now turn to whether it could somehow return in a Warner Bros. game. A new Middle-earth, perhaps? Bat Man? Harry Potter?