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Originally Posted by Chris Hibner
Here's where I disagree.
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Can you be more specific about what you're disagreeing with? I can't tell whether you think patents are indeed for ideas rather than for embodiments, or whether you think the patent describes something other than encouraging teams to cooperate with their opponents, or whether you think VEX is not infringing the patent, or whether you think the patent is designed to keep others from using the invention, or whether you think FIRST intends to withhold permission for VEX to use a scheme that rewards teams for high opponent scores. The rest of your comment doesn't seem to clarify things.
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The patent claims qualification rankings based upon adding the winning alliances score to twice the losing alliances score. It doesn't have any provisions for win/loss record in qualifying, or for solely using the losing alliance's score.
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The claim doesn't specify the "W+2L" formula. It says "enhancing the raw score of the winning alliance by adding to the raw score of the winning alliance the raw score of the other alliance". What you said is in the description of the game used as an embodiment of the invention rather than in the basic claims. Win/loss record is not mentioned, but the losing alliance's score certainly is. See specifically claim #6 and this sentence from the detailed description:
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Originally Posted by United States Patent 7,507,169
Both teams in the losing alliance get their own alliance score in Qualifying Points (QP's).
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