Virtual Worlds News has reported that Worlds.com is suing NCsoft for patent infringement pertaining to patents held by Worlds.com, specifically a patent tittled "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual
Space."

On Christmas Eve, Worlds.com filed a complaint against NCsoft for infringing on its virtual world and MMO patent. Worlds.com, which was one of the early virtual world developers from the '90s, made waves earlier this month when it announced that it had selected an intellectual property firm to defend its two patents related to scaling virtual spaces and enabling users to interact and chat in 3D environments.

Specifically, the suit claims that NCsoft has infringed on patent 7,181,690, "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" through its games, including City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dungeon Runners, Exteel, Guild Wars, Lineage, Lineage II, and Tablula Rasa.

The complaint seeks to recover damages for the infringement and asks that NCsoft be prevented from infringing on patent 690, which covers scaling. Based on NCsoft's headquarters in Austin as a source of the infringement, the complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division.

Read more here.

Read the complaint here.

You have got to be kidding? Well then, they might as well sue Blizzard, SOE, Turbine, Funcom or any company that ha "Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space:

Stupid...

And I remember their software,,,enjoyed at that time...but dang...this is stupid

Originally posted by openedge1

You have got to be kidding? Well then, they might as well sue Blizzard, SOE, Turbine, Funcom or any company that ha "Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space:

Stupid...

And I remember their software,,,enjoyed at that time...but dang...this is stupid

Why stop there?

Theres all the F2P MMOs, then sites like GaiaOnline and IMVU!

Hell!

Why dont we sue everyone who's even messed around with trying to make a 3D MMO?

I'm sure a bunch of private servers would be liable as well to this :P

I thought i was reading this nonsense wrong... how is this even a valid case. My guess is they started with ncsoft because they prolly thought they would be an easy target to start with, if they win then they have precident.

A company like sony or blizzard wouldve just steam rolled them and moved on.

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

I thought i was reading this nonsense wrong... how is this even a valid case. My guess is they started with ncsoft because they prolly thought they would be an easy target to start with, if they win then they have precident.

 

A company like sony or blizzard wouldve just steam rolled them and moved on.

I agree totally.

Since Szark posted this, I've been reading up as much as I can, and I just can't figure it out.

Now if NCSoft had used Worlds.com technology without permission, I could understand it. However, I can't find anywhere that even claims this is the case.

There's either more to this than is publicly available, or somebody has gone bonkers.

You could see the warning signs a few weeks ago with the Massively article.

The games listed have been out for years. First thing a judge will ask is "Why now?".

NCsoft is huge...lol yhey have no chance

Originally posted by SgtFrog

NCsoft is huge...lol yhey have no chance

Yeah, i'm pretty sure NCSoft will steam roll them anyway.

I just can't take this stuff serious, and then even to sue on christmas! that's just so much more wrong :P

The scaling part was bound to be figured out eventually. And the truth is Everquest 2 was the first to really pull it off. Before the mmo's that there complaining about. Tell ya one thing, I hope they decide to get new devs for TR and fix the problems with it with the money NCSoft is about to make.

Ehh, it won't happen.

No matter how much I want to see NCSoft sued for all it's worth, it just won't happen.

lol wow

This seems to be a "Look and Feel" lawsuit like Apple Computer vs. Microsoft.  My gut instinct is to say that it's too broad to stick; but I've been wrong about the legal system before.  However I can say that it's probably going to take a LOT of money to make this one go away.  NCSoft will probably be a shadow of it's former self when it finally gets clear of this.  As this is one of the "Intellectual Property" cases the Supreme Court loves to invite itself to adjudicate.  Bottom line, this will strike a chill in the industry that will make it harder for companies to get their MMO's to market.

Love to be the bearer of bad news!

N4

LOLOL. They probably decided to sue NCsoft because they knew they're one of few people with money these days. SOE can't be doing too well 

They probably won't get a cent out of NCsoft. The latter will probably countersue in typical courtroom drama fashion.

I remember these guys - talk about a blast from the past. They would've had more luck going after Linden Lab or even Multiverse - the people who were supposed to make the Firefly MMO, but NCSoft? I think this is one of the few times where they're getting a bad rap. To go a little aluminum foil hat for a moment, I noticed that Sony is (or was) one of their clients. Wonder if Sony put them up to this to force NCSoft into wasting their already dwindling profits on legal fees? Eliminate some competition through a small cold war?

I would love to know how long NCsoft has been using the software for. If its been a very long time then why is worlds.com only sueing NCsoft now why not a year after the started to use the software. They can try to sue but they will loose.

err wait a sec, any multiplayer pc game has a chat function...that also includes games like UT and halflife, what are they going to do if they win....sue every game developer?

Anyway im still waiting on NCsoft being sued by Marvel again over issue 13's title...Power and Responsibility, a shortened version of " With great power comes great responsibility" 

Gee and these games have been out for how long ? sounds like some one is trying to make some money for thier failing company, next thing Al Gore will be suing all of us for using the internet LOL...

The patent is too broad.  Even before Meridian 59 there were MUDs, which also would fall under the description of one of these patents. The patent is going to be thrown out. They might as well have tried to patent 'The rapid oxidation of carbon based materials' aka fire.

Originally posted by Samillence

I would love to know how long NCsoft has been using the software for. If its been a very long time then why is worlds.com only sueing NCsoft now why not a year after the started to use the software. They can try to sue but they will loose.

As far as i understand its nothing about actual software being used, but the kind of communication between people thats realized.

This one is another great example on how messed up some patents are, just filed because of greed and stupidity. I really wonder how much they had to pay to get this one passed through.

Originally posted by grimfall

The patent is too broad.  Even before Meridian 59 there were MUDs, which also would fall under the description of one of these patents. The patent is going to be thrown out. They might as well have tried to patent 'The rapid oxidation of carbon based materials' aka fire.

lol.

Does the fact that they are citing games that have been out for years, but the Patent was only issued two Feb.'s ago(2007), play a role in this at all?  Curious.

I just read the article that it links to and someone there had posted that the patent NCSoft is being sued for was filed Feb '07.

There is no chance these bozos will win.

What we dont know is what 690 is specifically. For all we know 690 may be a specific programming that makes the globals system work.

I dont see how this is a lawsuit addressing chat, this is addressing the issue of patent 690.

You can't patent chat, but you can patent a program OF chat.

I suspect that NCsoft chat programming and world's programming is too close for comfort. When in contrast SOE and Blizzard wrote chat programming that is totally different.

Just my 2 cents.

Wow that is a stupid case set by stupid people that first of all rooted from a really stupid patent. -if this is about the chat functions look at all of them closely, no matter what skin and theme you wrap them with, no matter what company releases them, they will ALL HAVE SIMILAR FEATURES.

These morons just want a quick buck and should be "steamrolled" by every company that so happens to have chat. Sue them back for all they've got heck buy them out and close em down.
 

Originally posted by Bountytaker

Originally posted by grimfall

The patent is too broad.  Even before Meridian 59 there were MUDs, which also would fall under the description of one of these patents. The patent is going to be thrown out. They might as well have tried to patent 'The rapid oxidation of carbon based materials' aka fire.

 

lol.

Does the fact that they are citing games that have been out for years, but the Patent was only issued two Feb.'s ago(2007), play a role in this at all?  Curious.

If I remember correctly NCsoft put a new chat program in CoX within the last  year.

I have been playing CoX for the last 2 years and it seems like I recall something about this, and about 3 weeks of problems with the chat in game.

What a crock of &%$#... I just tried out the worlds.com client... it made my eyes bleed!!

Retrospective and hideously BROAD patents like this make me sick!!  

I hope they lose, and get their patent overturned!!!!!!