Mon, Sep 17, 2012 | 08:13 BST

World of Warcraft patent lawsuit going to court

World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard is to appear in court next year over patent infringement claims by Worlds Inc. The lawsuit claims that Blizzard’s MMO infringes on several patents for MMO tech created by the company.

U.S. District Judge Denise J Casper has revealed that the case filed by Worlds Inc. will go to court on June 27th 2013. If victorious, the patents filed by Worlds Inc. would set a precedent for all MMOs, due to the company’s tech being used widespread in the genre.

GI.Biz reports that the patents in question have been filed in the States are numbered 8,082,501, 7,493,558, 7,945,856 and 7,181,69.

The patents come under the banner title “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space”, and relate to what the site is calling ‘ three-dimensional graphical multi-user interactive virtual world systems’, which is the basis for most MMOs on the market today.

You can find out more about what this tech does and why it’s important to the MMO genre at the Worlds Inc. site here.

Thanks again GI.biz.

12 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Activision Blizzard, MMO, RPG
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12 comments

#1

GwynbleiddiuM
17/09/12, 8:43 am

What exactly is this? So, they invented the wheel? they invented the genre we know as MMORPG? And they’re only going after Blizzard? seems legit…

What a load of… I guess U.S. law is so messed up that anyone can do anything and claim anything with a piece of reference number and a line of description.

#2

Dave Cook
17/09/12, 8:44 am

@1 I think its so if they know they can topple someone as big as ActiBlizz, they can go after everyone, set a precedent so to speak.

#3

GwynbleiddiuM
17/09/12, 8:50 am

@Dave but this is stupid, the patent is registered in Feb of 2009, meaning most of these games were already out there including World of Warcraft.

#4

Dave Cook
17/09/12, 8:52 am

@3 Yeah I agree, but maybe they waited this long so they could do this? We’ll know more about why this happening nearer the case next year I’m guessing. It’ll be interesting to see what happens at any rate.

#5

viralshag
17/09/12, 9:03 am

Wasn’t this already reported a little while ago? it might have been the same thing but doesn’t this company make its money by going after lawsuits?

I checked, they went after NCsoft for the exact same things. These people seem like the scum of the game world.

#7

Dave Cook
17/09/12, 9:09 am

@5 it was reported that they were eyeing up ActiBlizz I believe, but now the court date has been made official.

#8

viralshag
17/09/12, 9:47 am

I would love to know if these guys actually have any right to the money which, imo, they seem to leech from these companies.

Wiki says NCSoft settled out of court but Worlds are trying to reopen the case. Supposedly, if they win they will basically be due royalties from every MMO out there that has a chat function.

Seems absolutely ludicrous to me.

#9

xxJPRACERxx
17/09/12, 10:06 am

I always cheer for the underdog but in this case I hope ActiBlizz win and put these guys out for good.

#10

viralshag
17/09/12, 10:19 am

What’s really sad is this will not be beneficial to anyone but the CEO of Worlds. I say CEO because I would be surprised if there was anyone else working at the company.

It doesn’t look like they have produced anything and are simply out for a payday based on work they might have done a long time ago, before they originally went bust.

#11

GwynbleiddiuM
17/09/12, 10:25 am

@10 They’re clever scam company. What you said IMO is 110% correct.

#12

viralshag
17/09/12, 10:57 am

@11, I’m honestly interested and I have been trying to look into the history of this company and the work they did.

Apparently, “although the company has a 2,000-square-foot Brookline office, its five employees and seven consultants work largely virtually, from California and Minneapolis, said Kidrin.”

Thomas Kidrin is the man behind the lawsuit. It basically looks like they got a patent for the online multi-user chat back in the 90s and have been using that original patent to gain continuations over the years. Which I imagine encompasses more and more of what current companies do.

So they’re not actually creating anything new, they just claim to be. And then go out and sue people for it. Scum. Absolute scum.

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