Patent suit against Activision proceeds

Patent suit against Activision proceeds

Mon 17 Sep 2012 6:40am GMT / 2:40am EDT / 11:40pm PDT
Legal

Suit claims infringement by World of Warcraft

Activision Blizzard

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide pure-play online...

activisionblizzard.c...

A key hearing in the patent infringement case of Worlds Inc versus Activision Blizzard has been set for June 27, 2013 by U.S. District Judge Denise J Casper.

The suit claims that Blizzard's World of Warcraft game infringes on patents held by Worlds Inc. The hearing that has been set, referred to as a Markman hearing, is the key event in a patent case where the judge issues rulings regarding the language and interpretation of the patents at issue in the case. Worlds Inc's patents, if sustained, would apply to most MMO's on the market.

The Worlds Inc patents in question are U.S. patents numbers 8,082,501, 7,493,558, 7,945,856 and 7,181,690 titled "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space." The patents are based around three-dimensional graphical multi-user interactive virtual world systems; in other words, the core of most MMO's.

10 Comments

Jay Trindall
QA

Rockstar Lincoln

World of Warcraft has been online for 8 years.... and now there's a dispute?

Posted:8 months ago

#1

Alex O'Dwyer
Character Animator

Rockstar North

Looks like Worlds inc are trying to cash in on someone elses success. You don't see that often these days.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Alex O'Dwyer on 17th September 2012 9:08am

Posted:8 months ago

#2

Klaus Preisinger
Freelance Writing

I heard that one before, didn't they go after NCsoft a few years back? The very same company, based on the very same patent?

Posted:8 months ago

#3

Michele Santullo
Engine Programmer

Frontier Developments

*Troll!! Troolll!!*

Posted:8 months ago

#4

James Battersby
Developer

Blue Beck

The earliest of these patents was filed in 2007.... by which time most MMOs had started. How did this patent pass?

Posted:8 months ago

#5

lewis labram
Environment Artist

Jagex

Could this extend to any 3d multiplayer game with a communication system? Wont these patents cover almost all online games? :/

If the Apple-Samsung patent row was won because "there was a patent filed" then surely this will be a pretty big problem for the industry?

Posted:8 months ago

#6

Josh Meier

Patent trolling at its finest.

Posted:8 months ago

#7

Alfonso Sexto
LT Tester (Spanish)

Keyfactor

Didn't we learned from the "Edge" BS? still more of this?

Pathetic greedy bast****!

Posted:8 months ago

#8

Terence Gage
Freelance writer

"System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space."
So, every online game and social MMO ever then?! As previously mentioned, how does shit like this actually get granted? The whole patent system is a joke.

And as a side note, 'MMOs' shouldn't have an apostrophe in it.

Posted:8 months ago

#9

Christopher McCraken
CEO/Production Director

Double Cluepon Software

What everyone needs to hope for, and pray for right now...is that Activision/Blizzard fight this one out to the bitter end, hope that they can get these patents re-examined and eventually killed. Should they settle, should they decide not to wage this battle, the MMO and Multiplayer market will be facing a serious, serious issue.

Posted:8 months ago

#10

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