Activision Blizzard Sued For Virtual World Infringement
A company is claiming that Call of Duty and World of Warcraft infringe on its patent.
Rather than serve the customer, it seems that most businesses have nothing else better to do than sue each other over patent infringement. History books will one day look back on the turn of the century as the "Era of Patent Infringement" or something even more clever. They'll report that corporations were fighting over the rights of touch controls, operating systems, smileys and now even virtual worlds.
Games Industry International reports that Worlds Inc. filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. According to the company, both franchises violate its patent by using a "system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space." Worlds Inc. is naturally seeking compensation because both games allegedly use technologies developed by the company.
"Technologies created by Worlds have helped the businesses of virtual worlds gaming and the sale of virtual goods to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry," said Worlds Inc. CEO Thom Kidrin. "While we are pleased to see that the gaming industry and its rapidly growing customer base have enthusiastically embraced our patented technologies, we deserve fair compensation for their use."
This is the second time Worlds Inc. has sued a publisher over an MMOG. The company went after South Korea-based NCSoft back in 2008, claiming that City of Heroes and its other MMOGs violated patent 7,181,690, aka "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space." The case was filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division because NCSoft Corp. had a headquarters in Austin, Texas.
The lawsuit stated that NCSoft illegally incorporated its patented "product" into its MMOGs. As the patent label implies, the "product" deals with creating realistic scalable presentations of 3D virtual worlds, and allowing players to interact in those virtual worlds. But the court eventually ordered a dismissal with prejudice due to a binding settlement between the two companies signed on April 23, 2010. The details of the settlement were not disclosed.
Based on the results of the first lawsuit, Activision Blizzard may end up settling out of court. After that, who will be next on the list? Sony Online Entertainment could be a likely candidate if it's not already.

It's a dark day for entrepreneurs. It's the entrepreneur genocide pretty much. If you invent ANYTHING AT ALL, you're going to infringe on someone patent.
I have no doubt that their patent is legit and they'll probably win the court case, but the way they decided to enforce their patent this late in the game is just downright foul. They should have come after MMOGs actively upon launch. I guess they used NCSoft as a testbed first to see if they have enough clout to take on Activision Blizzard.
Isn't the definition of multiplayer gaming effectively "users interacting in a virtual space"?
No, its bogus; even by the patent system's own flawed rules. Its no different than trying to patent the displaying of words on an LCD screen. Its an obvious idea that a device capable of displaying images will display images, or that a network between computers with graphical user interfaces will be presented graphically.
Why not? Remember, now we're on the "first to file" rather than "first to invent" system.
You may wish to zip your lips... your stupid is showing.
It really only does the world any good if inventions end up invented. The U.S. system for approving patents is remarkably good at keeping inventors suppressed and awarding money to people and corporations that have proved they are good at writing ideas down for things they never intend to realize.
Imagine the power of th patent troll.
All your base belong to us.
I've got one up on you. I'm going to patent the 5 senses.
Lawyers went on Strike!
Word is that Lawyers were not getting paid due to game developers have not sold their games.
An investigation on this matter revealed that Players have stop supporting them because they apparently got tired of what they call "patent trolls".
Well at least something good has come out of this.
face_mischief