Activision Sued Over Online Multiplayer in Call of Duty, WoW

[Tom Goldman]

Activision Sued Over Online Multiplayer in Call of Duty, WoW

If Walker Digital has its way, Activision Blizzard will have to pay up big for allowing online multiplayer in its games.

Digital business corporation Walker Digital, parent company of Priceline.com and holder of hundreds of patents, recently filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard and Zynga for infringing on one such patent involving a "distributed electronic tournament system." The titles that Walker says infringe on its patent run the gamut, from the entire World of Warcraft [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-Xbox-360/dp/B003JVKHEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294324370&sr=8-1].

At the heart of the matter is a patent issued to Walker Digital in 2002 for a "database driven online distributed tournament system." The expanded patent describes "a method and a system for a distributed electronic tournament system in which many remotely located players participate in a tournament through input/output devices connected to a central controller which manages the tournament."

Walker Digital names Activision Inc., Actvision Publishing, Activision Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, and Zynga in the lawsuit, alleging that 24 of their products are infringing. These include most of the companies' popular online titles, such as both GoldenEye 007 [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Xbox-360/dp/B00269QLI8].

The lawsuit doesn't nail down a specific amount of compensation Walker Digital feels it's owed yet, but says this number will be "ascertained through discovery or at trial." Considering the scope of the titles named, it'll likely be gigantic. Last month, Walker Digital filed a lawsuit against Facebook over a patent regarding the management of information about one's self, so the company appears to be trying to make its bones by patent trolling to some degree.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32294/Walker_Digital_Suing_Zynga_Activision_Blizzard_Over_Gaming_Tournament_Patent.php]

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[the_pleasure_is_mine]

They patented online tournaments?

Is that even possible?

Crazy patent trolls...

 

[Super Toast]

If that's possible, I'm gonna go patent the air.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

It really seems to be a good time to start thinking about writing up laws against Patent Trolling like this, because these are so generic as to be useless for any actual applications and are designed only for use in lawsuits.

 

[Autofaux]

I'm smelling... the courts throwing out these lawsuits. One. By. One.

 

[Irridium]

I feel John Carmack said it best:

The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.

Seriously, I'm no fan of Activision, but this is just stupid.

 

[Danallighieri]

Patent trolling, really, gotta love it -_-

 

[therandombear]

If that's possible, I'm gonna go patent the air.

We could cooperate, I'll patent breathing, that way we get to sue anyone who is breathing air!

OT: Patent troll is trolling I presume =/

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

"Connected to a central controller" - Well wasn't MW2 infamous for not having dedicated servers? And if that patent covers temporary servers, then that patent covers all online gaming. Seems a bit of an odd patent to grant, they're usually rejected if they're too broad-ranging.

 

[Zenode]

This is almost as bad as Worlds.com patenting "online avatars" i mean really, who the heck allows these vague patents to go through the system.

 

[NeedAUserName]

If that's possible, I'm gonna go patent the air.

I call dibs on the ground. So, maybe you and I don't pay each other?

 

[Korolev]

Oh COME ON! As much as I dislike Activision, this "law suit" is nothing more than a cheap ploy by a company looking to exploit patent laws. I hope Walker Digital goes bankrupt and that the people responsible for launching this ludicrous suit lose every single penny.

Make no mistake, if Walker Digital wins this lawsuit, say goodbye to all multiplayer forever.

 

[Soods]

And here I thought blizzard was sueing for stupid reasons.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

I am going to patent "a device and or program that is used to do stuff".

 

[Aphex Demon]

Walker Digital, of whom I have never heard of, sound like a bunch of pricks/trolls.

Should I patent the right to use touch sensetive control pads or something that could be used in the future, then bring hell onto any companies in the future who use it? Seems like the type of attitude Walker Digital have got.

EDIT: Ive just sent them an email in utter disgust.

Whether or not it will go through to them is unlikely.

Anyway here's what I said.

'Walker Digital/Joe Ellenthal



Hi there, I have a few words for you.



First off I would like to say this whole lawsuit situation is absolutely ludicrous.

The fact you have brought this up after 8 years of the initial ?patent? being made is dire.

Seems to me like your company has a shameless attitude towards the suing of these developers/publishers.

It seems like your just committing a low blow towards these companies by exploiting some of the patent laws, and its wrong, out of order.

Oh by the way, what the hell is a 'database driven online distributed tournament system'? I'm interested as to what this defines as a law with regards to the patent.

I hope you go bankrupt and whoever in this company created this ?plan of attack? on these companies gets the disrespect they deserve.

If you could aknowledge this email and reply with a reasonable explaination I will be open to change my opinion.

Thank you for your time, I?m now going to use my time into patenting the name 'iPhone 5'

Much love


Mr Fuxley'

 

[Super Toast]

If that's possible, I'm gonna go patent the air.

I call dibs on the ground. So, maybe you and I don't pay each other?

Just one step closer to world domination! HAHAHA!

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I mean... Really? First of all, how long have these "tournaments" been going on. And yet he's targetting three companies, for 24 of their titles, that have ONLY been coming out for the past SHITLOAD of years... Why are they only suing now? OH RIGHT! They let more titles come out so they can sue over more material and make more money! That's right... how did I miss that?

But seriously, they're only attacking three companies? You'd think they'd go after Zipper? (for those who don't know, Zipper created MAG, an ONLY online shooter that allows 256 people to participate in "tournaments" on one map.) You'd think they'd hit the company making online only games XD

And WoW is arguabnly not a tournament, as you are technically not directly pitted against one another in order to decide a winner.

Definition of tournament: a sporting competition in which contestants play a series of games to decide the winner

 

[wrightguy0]

what is with all these companies just starting to come out of the woodwork to sue over patent infringements? if there really was any base to any of these claims then they would have sued years ago when the companies in question started releasing products that allegedly infringe on their patents, not years after they've become multimillion dollar monster money makers. there need to be limits on how you can file these things, like a one to two year limit from the time a product is released. IMO these companies who are getting so damn sue happy are butthurt that someone was able to do what they tried to do, and do it better.

 

[TheTygerfire]

All Activision has to say is that their games don't support in-game online tournaments on their own and, boom, lawsuit invalidated.

Edit: At least tournament in the general, commonly used sense.

 

[Bobic]

Weren't online tournaments around long before 2002 anyway?