SEGA sues MementoMori developers for patent infringement

Pocket Pair is no longer the only studio being sued for patent infringement! Thanks to Otaku Research Institute, we learned yesterday that SEGA had taken legal action against Bank of Innovation, the developers behind the idle RPG MementoMori, for similar reasons. The amount of damages claimed by SEGA is one billion yen, or $6.7 million. We'd like to tell you a little more about the reasons behind this complaint.

Bank of Innovation allegedly responsible for 5 infringements of patents held by SEGA

According to the complaint filed with the Tokyo District Court, SEGA claims that the developers of MementoMori have infringed no fewer than 5 patents held by the Japanese firm. The complaint was filed after numerous negotiations between the two companies, which were unable to reach an agreement on the use of these patents.

Analyst Serkan Toto has examined the patents concerned by the complaint.

For my part, I have tried to untangle all this to help you better understand SEGA's complaint against BOI:

• Patent no. 5930111 concerns an alternative system for optimising the merging of rare cards.
• Patent no. 6402953 aims to make it easier for players to be aware of their gacha expenditure.
• Patent no. 6891987 enables the information needed to improve characters to be presented more clearly. According to Serkan Toto, this patent is intended to simplify the merging of character cards of the same type.
• Patent no. 7297361 is a new version of the previous patent.
• Patent no. 7411307 relates to a specific pity system developed by SEGA.

SEGA's claim against Bank of Innovation: dramatic consequences for the dev studio

In addition to damages, SEGA is also demanding that the exploitation of MementoMori: AKFRPG and all content relating to the game be halted. This could have serious financial consequences for the Bank of Innovation studio, a lightweight in the face of the historic video game giant, since BOI's value has been estimated at just $150 million.

For the moment, Bank of Innovation has stated that it is not infringing any of SEGA's rights and that it intends to defend itself. Stay tuned...