Invalidity dossier
US 6579184
Multi-player game system
Current assignee: RPX Corp
Added 9/23/2026, 4:38:41 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,579,184 B1
Title: Multi-player game system
Inventor: Erkki Tanskanen
Original assignee: Nokia Inc; later assignments listed to Nokia Mobile Phones Limited, Nokia Technologies Oy, and (currently listed) RPX Corp / Nokia USA Inc.
Filing/priority date: 1999-12-10 (application US09/460,340)
Publication/grant date: 2003-06-17
Status (as listed): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2019-12-10
Purpose. The patent addresses making multi-player video games more convenient by letting players participate without owning a local game console, home computer, or comparable specialized device. Instead, the game is hosted server-side.
Plain-language scope. A multi-player video game server has three main parts: a player interface connecting it to a network to receive game control data from multiple players using their own game control devices; a video interface connecting it to a video transmission network to send out game display video; and a game engine (processor plus memory storing multi-player game instructions) that processes the players' control data and renders the game display video for transmission. The described method covers receiving multiple player input data streams at the server, generating an output display image by executing game instructions that treat those streams as inputs to the same game, and transmitting that image over a video network channel. On the player side, a game control device sends input over a network to the server, and a video terminal receives the server-generated image produced in response to that player's input plus another player's input.
Disclosed variations include: dividing the display image into subdivisions per player; DTMF/touch-tone input via telephone keypads (with optional voice synthesis back to players); output viewable by both players and non-player audiences; identical or per-player images on different channels; support for more than one game; game engines using mass-market console hardware (Playstation®, Nintendo®, Sega®); control data over a network different from the video network (e.g., point-to-point telephone or packet data, with broadcast video); and one-way, multi-channel video receivable at many terminals.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6579184/en
What the excerpt does not establish. It provides only an abstract/definitions-style summary plus a partial description and figures list; it does not set out the full claims (so exact claim scope is unverified), the complete specification, prosecution history, or any legal conclusions. Dates, assignee listings, and status are as the source presents them and are not independently verified here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:44:21 PM
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PTAB challenges
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
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