Need information (preferably court cases) regarding simulations (other
than flight simulators) of systems or devices that infringe on
patents.  That is, the simulation itself infringes.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 24 May 2003 12:53 PDT

I'm having a hard time envisioning a simulation of a technology
infringing on the technology itself.  Do you have reason to think that
cases like this have actually been contested in court?

From a quick search, the only examples I see are simulation software
allegedly infringing on *other* simulation software -- is that
something of interest to you, or are you looking solely for examples
where the simulation infringes on a piece of hardware?

If you can tell us a bit more about the circumstances you are
inquiring about, it might be possible to do a more focused search for
the type of information you need.

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Clarification of Question by buddy77-ga on 24 May 2003 22:58 PDT

Your comments are in order.  What you have found is what I found.  But
what I need is a case where there is a patent for a system; and, a
simulation of the system is made and used. Would the simulation of the
system infringe the patent? I believe it should, but I can not find a
court case to that effect. Thanks. Leo

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 25 May 2003 14:42 PDT

This is as close as I could get:

http://www.ipo.org/WMSGamingVItlGame7.20.99.htm

WMS GAMING v. INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY,


The case involves a slot machine simulation, which I suppose could, in
theory, infringe on a physical slot machine.  But the case is only
tangentially about simulation issues, so I'm posting it here FYI only
(rather than as an answer).

Any comments as to the usefullness (or, as I suspect, lack of
usefullness) of this case would be appreciated.

buddy77...

I can think of a simulation which is careful to follow the
rules to *avoid* a lawsuit/courtcase. The MAME program,
short for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulation, emulates
a variety of the old favorite arcade games, such as 
'Tank', 'Centipede', 'Asteroids', etc. The homepage for
the program is here:
http://www.mame.net/

They note on the site that you must, by law, download the
'ROM sets' from a different site than the MAME program:

"Warning! MAME is an emulator. It reproduces, more or less
 faithfully, the behavior of various arcade machines. But
 hardware is useless without software, so images (files)
 of the ROMs which run on that hardware are required. Such
 ROMs, like all commercial software, are copyrighted.
 Therefore, it is illegal to possess a ROM image file if
 you do not own the original ROM. Needless to say, ROMs
 are not distributed together with MAME. Distribution of
 MAME with ROM images is a violation of copyright law
 and a violation of the MAME license, and it should be
 promptly reported to the authors so that appropriate
 legal action can be taken."
http://www.mame.net/download.html

Obviously, such disclaimers are made for precisely the
reason that you note: the simulation of the system would
infringe on the patent *if* the two were distributed
together. I don't know that the authors of the MAME
simulation were ever taken to court, but they are
obviously aware of, and responsive to, that possibility.

If this suits your needs, let me know, and I'll formally
post an answer.

sublime1-ga

Your info re MAME and your legal/technical argument is good.  This is getting close.

buddy77...

I'm glad that you are closer to what you are seeking.
Can you specify what will hit the jackpot as of now?

Seems like we are at the end of the rope.  Thanks for your help.