BRocknRolla
Member
Except it's not a creation. It's a discovery. Hello Games had no reason to assume that anyone attempted to patent it. It's like if a filmmaker made a movie centered around a newly discovered species of bird. The person who discovered this new bird isn't entitled to anything from the filmmaker and can't own that bird.
A patent is a creation though, not a discovery. If you genetically made that new bird, you could absolutely patent it. While the math itself may have been a discovery, the patent is likely on a novel manner in which to use it, which presumably is what the patent is for. Whether or not it actual is novel isn't something I'm weighing in on, but clearly someone agree that it was if they've been issued a patent.
Likewise, "I didn't assume you had a patent," wouldn't be a legitimate defense for a patent case.