Patent infringement lawsuit over “virtual worlds” not over
March 24, 2014 1:48 pm Leave your thoughts
Patent disputes can be long and costly, as video-game creator Activision Blizzard is finding out. The company may have won a small victory during a recent round in an ongoing patent dispute with World's Inc., but that doesn't mean the case is over.
Recently, World's Inc., which claims to own "virtual worlds"—virtual spaces where game players are able to interact—has brought a case against the maker of popular interactive games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
According to an article in GigaOM, World's Inc. claimed to own the rights to virtual worlds in 2009. There has been a lot of dispute over patent claims like this one because they deal with broader concepts, as opposed to actual inventions. In a recent ruling, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper said that Worlds Inc.'s patents appear to be invalid because they had already appeared publicly prior to the patents being filed. As GigaOM notes, this ruling is just a setback for World's Inc., as it won't stop the company from suing over "future acts of infringement."
This is what can happen when a company files a generalized patent about something that is an idea rather than an actual invention. This is a case of a non-practicing entity (NPE) suing over a license violation, even though they are not actively producing the product themselves. World's Inc. hoped to cash in on its patent by suing another company. This type of practice is a trend that has been said to be a threat to innovation, especially in the software industry.
A patent lawsuit can mean the end for smaller companies that do not possess the resources it takes to cover the potentially massive legal fees necessary to go up against an NPE. An Arizona small business lawyer knows what you need to do to keep your intellectual property safe from NPEs.
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