Worlds.com To Extend Virtual World Lawsuit To Second Life, WoW 106
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:800-pound level 80 Gorilla (Score:5, Interesting)
Blizzard makes a few handy billion per year. I imagine they could front a defense that would make the SCO epic look like a parking infringement notice.
Honestly, I doubt it. There's a reason IBM's lawyers are typically known as the Nazgul, they've got a reputation as the most dangerous lawyers money can buy so if they couldn't end it sooner and bloodier for SCO, chances are nobody could have.
Add to that the fact that this is about patents instead of copyright, which are usually much more vague in their phrasing, and you'd see that *if* they do win against NCSoft, I believe Blizzard is in for some serious pain next. The US is obssessed over protecting the concept of "IP" as of late, and it shows on both laws and judgements.
Re:Patent Acquisition and Assertion (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that Bilski [fsf.org] might have something to say about this patent. ... were this patent not (ahem) patently for entertainment only.