Worlds inc. an American company that develops tools and systems for interacting in virtual environments is suing Blizzard and Activation for violating patents in place and owned by them.
Worlds Inc. currently holds 1 patent pertaining to a virtual chat environment and 4 patents pertaining to “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENABLING USERS TO INTERACT IN A VIRTUAL SPACE”. Both of these are used in one or another by the above mentioned companies.
The interesting thing is that from what I can tell lawsuits are the true funding behind everything this company does. They had an open suit against NCsoft that was settled behind closed doors for an undisclosed amount. However NCsoft is currently trying to appeal and fight again. This is what lead me to my previous statement.
They are smart by targeting some big companies they are lowering the chances of an actual suit taking place and leaning more towards settlement. When asked about it Worlds inc had this to say: “Technologies created by Worlds have helped the businesses of virtual worlds gaming and the sale of virtual goods to grow into a multibillion-dollar industry,” Worlds Inc CEO Thomas Kidrin said in the GamesIndustry.biz report. “While we are pleased to see that the gaming industry and its rapidly growing customer base have enthusiastically embraced our patented technologies, we deserve fair compensation for their use.”
Fair enough Tom. Understandable reasoning there. However, why now? the game has been out for 7 years. its not like you haven’t heard of the game. You work in the business, and in case you don’t pay attention to your own field, you’ve seen Chuck Norris, or Mr. T littered commercials for the game.
I don’t know about you but I sense something fishy here. Now, no details as to what amount Worlds Inc is looking for as far as monetary damages go. However, I bet this settles behind closed doors.
So what do you think about all this? Do you smell something fishy like I do? or do you think World Inc is in the right? Let us know in the comments below!
You can check out Worlds inc at http://www.worlds.com/
(Source: GamesIndustry.biz)
