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Blizzard wins court case over patent troll Worlds Inc.
A Boston court ruled in Blizzard's favor last week against a lawsuit brought on by Worlds Inc. (aka Worlds.com) that claimed the studio infringed on four patents that Worlds Inc. made in the mid-1990s. This ruling is the latest development in a case that spans back to 2012, when Worlds Inc. filed the suit. The company claimed that Blizzard violated patents that showed the invention of "a method for enabling a first user to interact with other users in a virtual space," among other items. A U.S. District Judge ruled that these patents are invalid because those inventions already existed prior to the filings. This isn't Worlds' first attempt to sue an MMO studio over these allegations, as it went after (and lost to) NCsoft and Linden Lab several years ago.
Blizzard scores a victory against patent troll Worlds, Inc.
Activision Blizzard has won a victory over Worlds Inc, which has been leveraging its patents on basic virtual world principles -- like the ability to chat with other users in a virtual environment -- to sue MMO companies like Blizzard and Second Life makers Linden Labs. Patent trolling can be big business and, indeed, seems to be the primary business that Worlds Inc is in these days. However, they may be running out of luck in this case, as the latest ruling suggests the patents are invalid because they describe things already in public use before they were filed. However, this ruling is certainly not the end of the ongoing legal drama involving Worlds, which has lauded the ruling as a clear victory for itself. But with the Supreme Court currently considering whether to take stronger action against patent trolls, which may make it easier for sued companies to recover legal fees from patent trolls (and thus deter these sorts of lawsuits), it may be harder for Worlds to find traction on such lawsuits in the future. We'll have to keep watching to see just what happens between Activision Blizzard and Worlds, but it seems unlikely that they'll manage to recover from this ruling. If you want all the details, check out the writeup on Gigaom or, if you're fluent in legalese, read the decision yourself.
Activision files virtual worlds patent countersuit against Worlds Inc
Activision recently filed a countersuit against Worlds Inc over two patents related to virtual world interactions. The lawsuit is in response to one filed by Worlds Inc against Activision on March 30 regarding its patent "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space." The two Activision-owned patents in question, "Navigation with optimum viewpoints in three-dimensional workspace interactive displays having three-dimensional objects with collision barriers" and "Climability: property for objects in 3-D virtual environments" are included in Worlds Inc software called "Worlds Player," Activision alleged. Worlds Inc settled one suit against NCSoft in April 2012 after citing similar patent infringement in its games. As of March 2012, the software developer's news site noted that it has been awarded six patents in the United States related to virtual worlds, and it also holds one "'notice of allowance' for a seventh patent for multi-server technology for 3D applications."
