Originally posted by Ruinal

I sure hope Blizz actually fight it and tell those tossers to go eff themselves.

Yeh, apparently some tool has patented 'cold fusion'. How the eff do you patent a technology which hasn't *actually* been invented or demonstratably working yet? Hey, I'll patent 'breathing' with three deep breathes in and two sharp breathes out, pretty sure that'd be water-tight enough to sue most of the population of the planet for infringement at some time or other. Frikken lunacy.

I remember, back in 2010 I think, I said that I hoped they went after Blizzard next. Blizzard was and probably still is in the best position, both financially and industry power wise, to keep these guys wrapped up in court for years and drain them dry. But, now that it's happend I have a feeling that Blizzard will just pay them off, sign an agreement and go about their buisiness. Worlds Inc will then be free to go after their next payday.

Originally posted by SuperDonk
The winners in all of this - the lawyers.

and the losers... everyone of us who plays games :{ 

This is really old news. Chances are that it won't make its way through the courts for a lot of years...IF then.

Originally posted by expresso

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/04/13/worlds-inc-explains-why-its-suing-activision-blizzard-over-world-of-warcraft-and-call-of-duty/

In a nut shell Worlds Inc. say they invented a system that describes a way of limiting the number of Avatars on screen in a 3D generated world.?!

This in on par wth Apples rounded corner patent.

Software patents are a crock of crap. 

Originally posted by dariuszp

So ? They have patent but they didn't invent it. It's nothing new from what they described. Remember that idiots from USA allow you to patent even most stupid things under the sun. Like Microsoft have patent for double mouse click. And for making long names 8-characters short. And stupid stuff like that.

Some idiot even have patent about using stick in television that is not made from wood.

Whole patent system in USA is just sad and pathethic. 

I have to agree but want to trade the word "idiots" with "greedy weasels".

Yes, the patent laws are way too strict in the US, you can patent stuff that exists in nature, like genes from certain things.

I really hopes this lawsuit wont win, because it could kill MMOs as we know them today, and frankly a lot of other creative games as well.

That company and everyone involved in any capacity are a good example of humans who need removed from the gene pool.

Its easy for blizzard, move operations abroad, widen their base in europe, move and operate satellite servers in the US.  Someone needs to stop these guys, they don't seem to do anything as a company except sue.

They will milk every single company dry they can.

Blizzard is a US based company, I hope this time they have a fight on their hands. Courts usually side with the home team this time both the teams are home teams.

Patent sues seem to be a new fad these days.

It'll pass eventually.

Here is a video of Drew Curtis, the Owner & Founder of FARK.com discussing how he beat a "patent troll" lawsuit.

it is about 6 minutes, well worth the time if you want to educate yourself on the topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_lb3D7Ay-M

From what I can figure, it looks like the original patent was regected in some way.  Either in part or in whole, which is why they filed for a continuation patent. 

I think maybe they weren't using the technology in any way that the patent became void or something, so they filed a continuation and I guess needed to show that they had interest in the patent, and so filed suit against Activision/ Blizzard. 

It also looks like they weren't the ones that decided to sue anyone.  Instead a patent lawyer approached them with wanting to file suit. 

It is interesting though.  I don't know how many people ever noticed this, but when you play WoW, when a bunch of people are in the same area as you, it will kind of phase people out of view to help improve performance.  WoW was the only MMO I played that ever noticed doing that.  If I remember correctly, this was actually something that Blizzard implimented after release because of the lag in Ironforge and Orgrimar, and was kind of a big deal because it cut down on a LOT of the lag you used to get when you went into those areas. 

It very well could be that Blizzard used Worlds technology to do this. 

The patent itself doesn't actually cover "virtual worlds" but the way that the PC and server communication works in regards to the number of players in a given area.  Blizzard does use a system them cuts down on the number of people that you can see around you in order to control lag.  It's very possible blizzard is using worlds technology, and worlds didn't know because they weren't actually doing anything with the technology they had a patent for. 

At least that's the what I got from it.

Edit:  I'm wondering if this lawyer came to them about it, they went to enforce the patent, found they were losing control of it because they didn't do anything with it, and so filed a continuation and suit to retain control of the patent.  Dunno.

I hope all the online game stay together and take them down.............

I'm on the online gaming side.  Go blizz

Originally posted by Stizzled

Their case is actually pretty air tight, they were smart about it and knew exactly what they were doing.

http://www.worlds.com/patentinformation.html

 

They are free to sue anyone anywhere that runs an online game.

Anyone can sue anyone. And it's far from air tight as it's a fairly basic, broad and obvious optimization: I have too many messages to deliver and not enough time so just deliver to the closest recepients. Also there is a massive amount of goverment funded research and projects related to virual reality and 3D environments that predate this patent and one instance of prior art will negate it. From what I can tell, some of their claims were dismissed because of prior art in the ncsoft case a few years back. 

Even if the patent was valid and they win, damages become an interesting discussion. Doesn't seem like it had any real impact to ncsoft.

Originally posted by Stizzled

Originally posted by Ruinal

I sure hope Blizz actually fight it and tell those tossers to go eff themselves.

Yeh, apparently some tool has patented 'cold fusion'. How the eff do you patent a technology which hasn't *actually* been invented or demonstratably working yet? Hey, I'll patent 'breathing' with three deep breathes in and two sharp breathes out, pretty sure that'd be water-tight enough to sue most of the population of the planet for infringement at some time or other. Frikken lunacy.

I remember, back in 2010 I think, I said that I hoped they went after Blizzard next. Blizzard was and probably still is in the best position, both financially and industry power wise, to keep these guys wrapped up in court for years and drain them dry. But, now that it's happend I have a feeling that Blizzard will just pay them off, sign an agreement and go about their buisiness. Worlds Inc will then be free to go after their next payday.

God I hope not.  I hope Blizzard/Activision fights them in court tooth and nail.  Till they drain these asshats.

There's a reason why Microsoft and Google signed an angreement with one another to never try and steal current employees away from each other.  But young up and comers are free game (my friend eventually went with Microsoft).  My friend also told me how one of his junior level developer wanted to jump ship to Google and basically got blackballed by them.

I know it's cliche but it's true...patenting software is serious business.  An entire companies livelihood can depend on it.  Instead of suing left and right, Worlds would be better off getting royalties.

Originally posted by bbbmmmlll

Originally posted by Stizzled

Their case is actually pretty air tight, they were smart about it and knew exactly what they were doing.

http://www.worlds.com/patentinformation.html

 

They are free to sue anyone anywhere that runs an online game.

Anyone can sue anyone. And it's far from air tight as it's a fairly basic, broad and obvious optimization: I have too many messages to deliver and not enough time so just deliver to the closest recepients. Also there is a massive amount of goverment funded research and projects related to virual reality and 3D environments that predate this patent and one instance of prior art will negate it. From what I can tell, some of their claims were dismissed because of prior art in the ncsoft case a few years back. 

Even if the patent was valid and they win, damages become an interesting discussion. Doesn't seem like it had any real impact to ncsoft.

It's not true "anyone can sue anyone". If you file criminal or civil complaints which are knowingly frivolous, you become subject to criminal and civil action against malicious prosecution. For a lawyer this will mean loss of credentials. For an individual or company, this means you will lose your ass, especially if, by means of said frivolous action, the defendant suffers any loss.

Originally posted by bbbmmmlll

Originally posted by Stizzled

Their case is actually pretty air tight, they were smart about it and knew exactly what they were doing.

http://www.worlds.com/patentinformation.html

 

They are free to sue anyone anywhere that runs an online game.

Anyone can sue anyone. And it's far from air tight as it's a fairly basic, broad and obvious optimization: I have too many messages to deliver and not enough time so just deliver to the closest recepients. Also there is a massive amount of goverment funded research and projects related to virual reality and 3D environments that predate this patent and one instance of prior art will negate it. From what I can tell, some of their claims were dismissed because of prior art in the ncsoft case a few years back. 

Even if the patent was valid and they win, damages become an interesting discussion. Doesn't seem like it had any real impact to ncsoft.

It's air tight because of how basic it is. It's hard to refute a claim that your using someones idea when that idea is a basic feature in almost every single modern MMO. Every modern MMO is infringing on Worls patent(s). My problem with it is that Thomas Kidrin is not the person who first developed this software, these patents just landed in his lap. That, in my opinion, does not entitle him to anything.

The truth of it is that Worlds Inc. is a one man patent troll company, and has been since 2008 when they sued NCsoft. Kidrin's company has been in the crapper since 2001. These patent suits are nothing more than a way to inject money into a failed and completely irrelevant company. Even before the NCsoft settlement Kidrin had future plans of going after other companies, and he's following through on exactly what he said he would do.