Worlds.com files suit against NCsoft for patent infringement

You might remember earlier in the month we reported on Worlds.com placing down patents on two technologies that we commonly use in the MMO industry -- scalable chat and system and method of enabling users of interacting in a virtual space -- and how much havoc this could play with our favorite games. We also made the assumption that lawyers were going to begin marching from Worlds.com with suits in hand, beginning their demands of money.

It turns out our assumption was right. Worlds.com has filed the necessary paper work to bring a suit against one of the big names in our industry: NCsoft. The suit was filed on Christmas Eve, December 24th, and charged NCsoft with infringement of patent 7,181,690, the system and method of enabling users of interacting in a virtual space, which was granted in early 2007. The suit cites all NCsoft titles, from Lineage to Aion, as the grounds for the patent infringement.

As a small side note, patent 7,181,690 was filed in 2000 -- over a year after EverQuest launched and dominated the fledgling industry with somewhere around 300,000 subscribers.

We contacted Worlds.com for comment on the 14th of December in connection with our first story, but they have not returned our requests for comment.

We'll keep our ears to the ground as more developments appear in this story.

Update: We have additional commentary on this patent suit.

Reader Comments (37)

I wonder who has the deeper pockets to let litigation go on for years NCsoft + every other game publish and developer who profits and future are at stake or Worlds.com.

Another lawsuit that shows how messed up the US patient system is.

Stuff like this drives me crazy. Doesn't matter what you did or when you did it as long as you have a patent that vaguely resembles someone else's product. Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits.

Only in America. I loathe these types of people.

www.whocanisue.com (No, really.)

Knowing the Shitheads that run the American legal system like I do this might be the deathknell for the industry.

While its a bit to early to say for certian this REALLY REALLY bodes BADLY for Gaming in particular and internet technology in general.

Maybe, just maybe this'll convince game companies like...oh, say Blizzard to stop copying things from every other MMO out there and branding it as their own.

Too bad GW didn't patent greenskin Orcs, otherwise they'd currently have a suit against (and win) Blizzard's copy of that (among other things that they copied).

But, I also thing that it's stupid that the american government can patent virtual crap like this and allow people "ownership" over a virtual idea. Really, the System and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space is nothing more than saying "Hey, multiplayer...we 'invented' it and own it." Because that's what's discribed in the clause made by that patent.---And, it's pretty bullshit considering that the internet in whole is everything described by that minus the avitar part...but with STEAM, Myspace, ect..they've all got the avitar part down. Next thing we'll see is them sueing 2nd Life, WoW, PotCO, EVE, and every other MMO out there.

Umm, except you can't "patent" greenskin orcs.

"The term patent usually refers to a right granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof."

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent

Just because you say something doesn't make it true. Blizzard doesn't copy things. Stop being an idiot.

Are you serious?! You honestly believe that Blizzard didn't copy anything from Games Workshop?

Really?

...

REALLY?!

Except that greenskin orcs were invented way back in the age of Dungeons and Dragons. Guild wars just ripped them off from somebody else.

Err, games workshop. But they still weren't the ones who CREATED greenskin orcs. Thing about a lot of the fantasy races is that, well......no one really knows who originally invented them.

Tolkien invented Orcs, so Games Workshop would have been sued for their use as well.

But since Blizzard doesn't call their monsters 'Greenskin Orcs', they call them 'Orcs' GW would have had a hard time proving that anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art_(patent)

/me points at Everquest, Meridian 59 and Ultima Online

/me tells worlds.com to suck it

/me points at Neverwinter Nights on AOL back in the early 90s!

This is completely assinine. Clearly we all need to think up something that's currently being used by a major industry, patent it, and then go sue them. Brilliant!

I find it telling that they didn't sue Blizzard first. Blizzard would be the biggest payout they could possibly imagine, but clearly they realize Blizzard has the money to blow them out of the legal water.

Hopefully a judge will realize that worlds.com exists as nothing more than a method by which to sue other companies for money and shuts this whole stupid thing down.

Something very similar happened in the paintball world a few years back. A company did something very similar and went after smaller companies to sent precedent, and then went after the big guys for tech that had been being used for years by everyone.

Bunch of fun haters.

There was a court ruling a few months back, I can't remember the name, that might kick in. It was something about a process (including software) being patented and how it is harder to get said patent and then successfully sue someone for violating the patent.

I have faith that Blizzard and Sony will not allow this case to be ruled in favor of Worlds.com -- even though they themselves are not named in the suit -- because they cannot allow any precedent to be used against them in the future.

===

It might also be possible that world's best hackers play MMOGs. Imagine their wrath should their favorite MMOG be threatened or, worse, shutdown by some nobody tech company with an internet presence. . .

That might be a a good thing. I would love to see the hackers of the world, like anonymous take down these attorneys. maybe put some child porn on their computers, destroy their credit etc etc.

you know scum like these attorneys were just sitting around talking with some programers on how to game a case to squeeze money from the big companies like Blizzard and Sony.

the hotest parts of hell are reserved for traitors, child molestors and attorneys like these

this is just stupid.... come on you cant compare a chat program like WORLDS to an MMO. true they would have some leverage with IMVU or There but come on.

Ill admit Im not the first person anyone would go for ligal advice, but theres no way you can compare an MMORPG with a virtual avitar based chat program like World, even if there are 1 or 2 similaritys between them, its still going alittle far claiming that NC copied from World.

This is too complex for a few random Internet posters to have any comment on it, especially those that immediately jump to conclusions and assume the party bringing the suit is being frivolous.

Prior art is only callable when the *METHOD* of bringing about the technology was already used. Scalable chat and virtual world interaction may not be anything new, but if Worlds.com came up with something that was more efficient and patented that method and someone else used it, then they have grounds for patent infringement. And it is really easy to do this as patents are public knowledge, so full details of how Worlds.com put together their system is in open view of everyone. To say some unscrupulous programmer peon at NCSoft didn't just steal it off of the US Patent application site to meet a quota is a more than reasonable consideration.

As blaze said, you aren't the people to go to for legal advice. Try not to speak in absolutes when clearly none of you have all the details on the matter and may not even have the expertise to tell what code does (I sure as hell don't).

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Worlds.com files suit against NCsoft for patent infringement

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