Mass-based online company Worlds.com is suing NCsoft for infringing on a patent that seems to lay claim to fundamental aspects of MMO games.
Mass.-based online company Worlds.com is suing NCsoft for infringing on a patent that seems to lay claim to fundamental aspects of MMO games.
Worlds.com said in its December 24 court filing that South Korea's NCsoft has infringed on U.S. patent 7,181,690, a "System and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space." NCsoft also has locations in the U.S.
The plaintiff said NCsoft is willfully and deliberately infringing on the patent. "Worlds has been damaged by the infringement by NCSoft and is suffering, and will continue to suffer, irreparable harm and damage as a result of this infringement, unless such infringement is enjoined by this Court," reads the suit (pdf).
The patent in question describes methods to allow a user to "interact with other users in a virtual space" through a server, with an avatar representing each user.
The patent's abstract reads in part, "The present invention provides a highly scalable architecture for a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system."
Worlds.com filed the patent in August of 2000, and the government issued the patent in February 2007. The inventors listed on the patent are Dave Leahy, Judith Challinger, B. Thomas Adler and S. J. Ardron.
NCsoft is the publisher of games including Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, Lineage and City of Heroes.
Worlds.com dropped a not-so-subtle hint that it would be bringing MMO makers to court over its patents when earlier in December, General Patent Corp., a patent licensing and enforcement firm, announced attorneys Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik LLP would be "enforcing" Worlds.com patents.
At the time, the law firm said it would defend the '690 patent and another filing, patent 6,219,045, a "Scalable Virtual World Chat Client-Server System."
Worlds.com, which was founded in 1994, is demanding that the court find the patent "valid and enforceable," and is seeking damages as well as a permanent injunction against any infringement of the patent by NCsoft.
I really doubt it's going to happen. It'd be nice to know what the actual system was rather than just hinting at it. If it's an engine part then fair enough, but if it's just an idea then they're sh*t out of luck.
seriously, Americans are a bunch of stupid people who will sue over anything like OMG YOU STEPPED ON MY BLADE OF GRASS. i think they are just doing this to get some money as what ever they did never worked
i think they are just doing this to get some money as what ever they did never worked
It's more than likely. Worlds.com's website makes their avatar system look like crap, so it's fairly obvious they're either so arrogant they don't care about updating their system, or they don't have skilled enough programmers to make it better.
I like how they've ignored the world's most prolific and recognisable branded avatar system - WoWarcraft - instead opting for a way smaller and far less profitable company first. Probably because they know ActiBlizzard would kick their ass.
I'm sure I've seen the suggestion before, but there should be a method for the general public to put forward evidence of prior art. If patent trolls knew that the whole world was potentially against them and not just lawyers then it might make them reconsider
As mentioned AOL did something like this way before worlds. But think the best part is that after filing a lawsui on NcSoft and thinking that they will win they will do so to every single MMO out there. Top notch idiots or what. Im laughing so hard at the thought of this.
This compensation crazy/sueing culture the world seems to have developed in the last ten years or so needs to stop. It seems people will sue over just about anything these days, and in this case the "patent" in question describes just about every role playing game ever made, not to mention things like Home and pretty much every online Fps in existence. I hope they lose and someone sues them for the "wasting people's time and trying to make a quick buck off the competition which obviously has much more talented people working for them than you do" patent.
If AOL released a system like this, 3 years before World.com filed the patent and assuming of course that the technology used didn't come from World.com. Then the technology has been released into the public domain and is therefore unpatentable.
Patents are never set in concrete. Just because you have one doesn't mean that it will stay that way. I've heard of patents that were accepted for 40 years and then were removed. All you have to do is prove that something else came first.
Can you imagine the windfall if they do succeed however? My god they would probably kill the MMO market over night. It's not as if it's a profitable business. WoW is the exception, not the norm.
if this turns out to be true and they win, then world of warcarft is about to lose alot of money, not to mention any other mmorpg maker and also sony for home, afterall its a 3d world where avatars act with each other through a server, also the sims online, in fact every game online where characters are desinged by people who play could be in trouble.
Just goes to prove, you dont need to be talented to make it, just come up with a vague idea, patent it and then wait for other people to develop, test and launch it, wait for it to be succesful and boom launch a lawsuit and make money from nothing.
This is a test of the water.....if they beat NC Soft in this suit, then the money they get from that and the status it'll give their original patent would build enough strength to go after World of Warcraft, and it's high dollar return.
worlds.com has no chance. Being able to talk to other people and see an avatar representing them is the basic principle of all mmorpgs, all the social based and combat based ones. If worlds.com won this case they would have a monopoly and no judge would allow that so it is a futile attempt.
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Then the technology has been released into the public domain and is therefore unpatentable.
