Patent Troll Ready to Sue World of Warcraft, Second Life
Second Life [http://www.worlds.com], for infringing on what he claims is his company's patented intellectual property: Scalable virtual worlds with thousands of users.
Worlds.com claims to hold a patent for the idea of virtual worlds that dates back to 1995 and that could quite literally apply to every 3-D online world currently in existence. In fact, Worlds.com has already taken one MMOG heavyweight to court: Korea-based violated 12 patents [http://www.ncsoft.com/] relating to its controllers held by a small Texas company called Anascape.
"Being a foreign defendant in Texas is not a pleasant thing," a lawyer familiar with the NCsoft case said. "The juries are, many would say, biased towards American plaintiffs and have a propensity to offer high damages. Some defendants might view them as an unfriendly jury and it might make the defendant more likely to settle." That could be bad news for companies like Linden Lab [http://www.blizzard.com], which Kidrin says he is "absolutely" going to sue if his suit against NCsoft is successful.
Worlds.com apparently came into possession of the patents by way of General Patent Corporation [http://www.starbrightworld.org/] reportedly encouraged Worlds.com management to "aggressively pursue" licensing arrangements with MMOG companies.
Kidrin says he doesn't want to put anyone out of business, he's simply after proper licensing fees for what he feels is rightfully his intellectual property. Given the amounts of money involved in the MMOG business, it's a safe bet he won't settle for token amounts.
via: VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2009/03/11/worldscom-ceo-if-we-beat-ncsoft-in-court-blizzards-next/]
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Second Life [http://www.worlds.com], for infringing on what he claims is his company's patented intellectual property: Scalable virtual worlds with thousands of users.
Worlds.com claims to hold a patent for the idea of virtual worlds that dates back to 1995 and that could quite literally apply to every 3-D online world currently in existence. In fact, Worlds.com has already taken one MMOG heavyweight to court: Korea-based violated 12 patents [http://www.ncsoft.com/] relating to its controllers held by a small Texas company called Anascape.
"Being a foreign defendant in Texas is not a pleasant thing," a lawyer familiar with the NCsoft case said. "The juries are, many would say, biased towards American plaintiffs and have a propensity to offer high damages. Some defendants might view them as an unfriendly jury and it might make the defendant more likely to settle." That could be bad news for companies like Linden Lab [http://www.blizzard.com], which Kidrin says he is "absolutely" going to sue if his suit against NCsoft is successful.
Worlds.com apparently came into possession of the patents by way of General Patent Corporation [http://www.starbrightworld.org/] reportedly encouraged Worlds.com management to "aggressively pursue" licensing arrangements with MMOG companies.
Kidrin says he doesn't want to put anyone out of business, he's simply after proper licensing fees for what he feels is rightfully his intellectual property. Given the amounts of money involved in the MMOG business, it's a safe bet he won't settle for token amounts.
via: VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2009/03/11/worldscom-ceo-if-we-beat-ncsoft-in-court-blizzards-next/]
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