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NCsoft Sued for Patent Infringement
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.
Source: Virtual Worlds News
by the gods! thats .... just about everyone!
"system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space"
Myspace is a system and method used for enabling users to interact in a virtual space..... and so every game with the words (1-2 players) or above in the back of the box....
BUT HEY! they must really need the money.. i mean i may be a gamer and heavy internet user but the words "worlds.com" is not known to me . What they have achived in reality is getting worlds.com hated by almost every online/gamer.. (DOT. DOT.DOT)
In a world where human DNA can me patented I am not in the least bit surprised.
The US upholds its patent laws as first to invent and not first to file so there is hope yet.
On one hand I do find it sad that they are targetting a struggling company and would hope in a show of goodwill that more successful companies that deal in the MMO business create a fighting fund for NCSoft to throw these guys off (if needed of course, Im sure snorting certain substances off a strippers breasts is not the only way to unwind after a hard day at court :P )
On the other hand, patent laws must be respected otherwise why try to invent or innovate if others can just take all your hard work and run with it.
NCsoft is far from struggling. Sure, they closed down an MMO which did not sell, but none of the business reports really indicates that they are in any trouble. Their current IPs easily finance the development of their new MMOs, so if a local law firm thinks NC was weak because they closed a local studio, they are mistaken.
The whole thing now reminds me of "Microsoft vs. Immersion". Sony also released the Dualshock in 1997 and lost to Immersion regardless, although their patent was filed in 1998. Worlds.com could have picked a bigger fish, but maybe they were looking for a company that was likely to settle in order to hurt its competitors later. Much like Microsoft did to Sony in the end of the Immersion trial.
Doom predates those patents, as well as most MUDs. Same goes for those bandwidth limiting "technologies" covered by the patent. Sounds more like the company owning that patent is in financial troubles and desperately tries to rake in some money.
Sure, hire some lawyers and they will say you can win such a trial, but then again, they get paid anyway. They would say you could sue water for being liquid. Liquids as you should now are covered by my "non solid aggregate patent". Covers gases and plasma too.
Very good point. I just read the summary of the patent, and half of it sounds a lot like what any online shooter does. Quake was the first FPS built for multiplayer over the internet, and the source code is freely available fro Q2 and Q3 under license, so I can't see how keeping track of user positions and what textures to load in the environment depending on position is an idea owned by this company.
Id should sue these jackasses, but they probably don't have any patents, since innovators and the people that actually push technology forward are too busy bringing their ideas to reality than filing patents for generalized bullshit.
A curious pattern of lazy patent holders suing companies for actually doing something with a similar idea is quite sickening.
My god though... IF the patent is enforced, and IF Worlds win the case, then they have potentially got themselves some kind of control over every game of this kind! World of Warcraft, Playstation Home? I haven't read the patent itself so maybe it's something VERY specific against NCSoft or it's games. But if not, there's obviously no way that world's will get what they're asking for. No way.
The Patent system is outdated. In my opinion software engineering is more like literature/film where there's no way to copyright a general concept/premise/etc, but the specific implementation is what is protected.
It's really sad when vultures like these try to take advantage of the hard work and talent of people in the industry.
I wonder if I the patent for: "File a general software patent with no implementation or hard work completed, and sue successful companies whose product fits the patented generalization" has been filed? It'd be nice to turn the tables on opportunists like these.
There needs to be a serious review of the skills of patent clerks in light of this and several other ridiculous patent claims. It seems that almost anything creative that can be put into use with a computer has a patent troll waiting in the wings to pounce. Let's not forget, the panning of computer pixels is patented by Atari.
I agree, if you there are some seriously stupid patents out there, such as this patent for a wood-based or wood-composite animal toy: http://www.google.com/patents?id=hhYJAAAAEBAJ (hint: it is a stick!)