Worlds.com To Extend Virtual World Lawsuit To Second Life, WoW

FiveRings writes "BusinessInsider has a story about Worlds.com, a company that inherited the patent on virtual worlds from the Starlight Starbright Foundation and is taking it to court against NCSoft over the company's various MMOs. If successful, he will press on and sue the makers of Second Life and World of Warcraft as well. The article notes that the NCSoft case is being held in east Texas, which has been a favorable venue for patent trolls in the past."

Re:Fight fire with fire.

[Idiomatick]

I tried. I put in the forms 2 years ago now but they haven't made it through yet. The reason there are so many trolls like this is because all these patents were granted in the 70s. Nobody new can troll since the patent line is like 5years long now. Everyone is just buying worthless old companies for their patents to troll with.

Patent Acquisition and Assertion

[KronosReaver]

Already been done.
United States Patent Application - 20080270152 - October 30, 2008
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20080270152&OS=20080270152&RS=20080270152 [uspto.gov]

Patent Acquisition and Assertion by a (Non-Inventor) First Party Against a Second Party

Abstract

Methods for a first party to acquire and assert a patent property against a second party are disclosed. The methods include obtaining an equity interest in the patent property. The methods further include writing a claim within the scope of the patent property. The claim is written to cover a product of the second party where the product includes a secret aspect. The methods further include filing the claim with a patent office. The methods sometimes include offering a license of the patent property to the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include asserting infringement of the claim by the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include negotiating a cross-license with the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim, where under the cross-license the first party obtains a license to an intellectual property right from the second party. The methods sometime include attempting to obtain a monetary settlement from the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim.

Prior art

[Nominar]

Patent filed in Aug 3 2000. Prior art in the form of launched MMORPGs: Dec 31 1996 The Realm Online Sep 30 1997 Ultima Online Sep ?? 1998 Lineage: The Blood Pledge Mar 16 1999 Everquest Oct 31 1999 Asheron's Call Source: http://www.mmogchart.com/analysis-and-conclusions/ [mmogchart.com]

Re:Prior art

[Psychochild]

Unfortunately, the creator of MMOGchart.com doesn't consider Meridian 59 worthy of mentioning, but it was launched in September, 1996.

However, the problem is that the patent is an extension of a previous patent, number 6,219,045 [google.com], dated November 12, 1996. A proper defense would require that that you go after that patent as well, as I was told by lawyer I know. There's still prior art to be had, but it's not quite so easy to find it.

If you want to read more about the NCSoft lawsuit issues and patent problems relating to game development, I posted up about this a little while ago on my professional MMO development blog: http://www.psychochild.org/?p=540 [psychochild.org]

Have fun.

Prior art? Try 1991

[WCMI92]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(AOL_game) [wikipedia.org]

Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical MMORPG, had all the elements most modern ones have (though far cruder of course), ran from 1991 to 1997.

There are, of course MUD's far older than that which were persistent worlds.

Some of you don't realize how old Worlds.com is.

[daten]

Worlds.com (or worlds.net) isn't a patent troll, like Caldera (who bought SCO before they started suing).

I remember participating in Worlds.com back in 1996. How many of your precious 3D MMO environments existed then?

http://web.archive.org/web/19961108105356/www.worlds.net/news/press_releases/press-101.html [archive.org]

I think many of you are reacting emotionally to any threat against your favorite current games. But please do a little research before the name calling. As much as I disagree with intellectual property and software patents, this one is at least slightly more legitimate than most.

Re:Some of you don't realize how old Worlds.com is

[Duradin]

Holding the case in East Texas? Check.
Sat on the patent for at least five years? Check.
Suing over a patent that is obvious enough for multiple entities to independently and simultaneously develop? Check.
Testing the waters with the little guys first? Check.

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck. Or in this case patent troll.

How much was your check for astroturfing?

Re:Prior art

[daten]

The company doing the suing also launched their 3D MMO product in 1996.