Worlds.com Files Suit Against NCsoft - Every Other MMO Company To Follow?
8 pages • Page 4
K
Lawyers are the pinnacle of humanity.
I'm guessing that NCSoft, Blizzard, Rockstar, Sony, Microsoft and a shedload of other multiplayer gaming companies have pretty apt and substantial legal teams so how did they all manage to miss this particular patent? I thought they'd scrape through every potential legal vulnerability so as to avoid the prospect of such problems.
I haven't studied law extensively but I remember companies getting in to bother for stuff like copying Dyson's cylindrical vacuuming mechanisms prior to the patent's expiration. Isn't a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" far too vague for a law suit?
I'm guessing that NCSoft, Blizzard, Rockstar, Sony, Microsoft and a shedload of other multiplayer gaming companies have pretty apt and substantial legal teams so how did they all manage to miss this particular patent? I thought they'd scrape through every potential legal vulnerability so as to avoid the prospect of such problems.
I haven't studied law extensively but I remember companies getting in to bother for stuff like copying Dyson's cylindrical vacuuming mechanisms prior to the patent's expiration. Isn't a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" far too vague for a law suit?
fenix
Major-General Awesome
Ex Talionis [Law], Trinity of the Ascended [ToA] ????????????????&#
W/
Joined Aug 2005
R
Doesn't Doom (1993) pre-date the original patent (1995)?
Its multiplayer modes were CLEARLY a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space". Doom players used "avatars" in game, and interacted in a virtual environment. And (if I remember correctly) it used a client-server connection model - one player ran as server and the others connected as clients.
Come to that, weren't there UNIX-based text-graphics multi-user dungeon (MUD) games long before that? Client-server... multiple users... your avatar was usually just a single text character, but it was an avatar all the same.
History of MUDs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD
Its multiplayer modes were CLEARLY a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space". Doom players used "avatars" in game, and interacted in a virtual environment. And (if I remember correctly) it used a client-server connection model - one player ran as server and the others connected as clients.
Come to that, weren't there UNIX-based text-graphics multi-user dungeon (MUD) games long before that? Client-server... multiple users... your avatar was usually just a single text character, but it was an avatar all the same.
History of MUDs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD
It's a fishing exercise - Worlds hope to get a judgement againnst NCSoft that the patent was infringed but as part of the process, they'll offer NCSoft a licence for the technology - they can then turn to Microsoft, Blizzard and Sony and say "Hey! wanna licence? get your check book..."
Didn't SCO try this about 5-6 years ago when it claimed patent on Linux? Except IBM called the bluff and took it to court (along with some other companies) and as a result lots of license negotiations and Novell ended up buying SCO...
Also - as more companies develop open-source "Second Life like" environments (and IBM is participating too) it may not as a 'vexatious case' get very far.
Didn't SCO try this about 5-6 years ago when it claimed patent on Linux? Except IBM called the bluff and took it to court (along with some other companies) and as a result lots of license negotiations and Novell ended up buying SCO...
Also - as more companies develop open-source "Second Life like" environments (and IBM is participating too) it may not as a 'vexatious case' get very far.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Lyndka
Didn't SCO try this about 5-6 years ago when it claimed patent on Linux? Except IBM called the bluff and took it to court (along with some other companies) and as a result lots of license negotiations and Novell ended up buying SCO...
|
If we can believe a poster on Bluesnews.com, then Worlds.com stock price magically rose from $0.01 to currently $0.19 after the patent was granted. The company seems to be bought up just for the purpose of filing suits. If this is true, then Worlds.com is just a shell company for patent trolls and as we can see with SCO it's not easy to shoot down ridiculous claims at court. Hell, even Microsoft with all their money lost a trial over a trivial patent about ActiveX integration details.
NCSoft is facing professional bloodsuckers and the battlefield (being Koreans in Texas) is definitely not to their advantage.
looks like this has some things in common with the fox/wb issue over the watchmen movie.
lets let them make it a big succes/hype and then milk them for every penny.
epic fail on worlds.com's part in my view.
Dont think they will get away with it after this time spent. and if i read it correctly the patent was issued in 2007. Guild wars was allready on the market for years then.
Let's keep an eye on this one.
lets let them make it a big succes/hype and then milk them for every penny.
epic fail on worlds.com's part in my view.
Dont think they will get away with it after this time spent. and if i read it correctly the patent was issued in 2007. Guild wars was allready on the market for years then.
Let's keep an eye on this one.
Well, if this
was not thrown out of court: expect NCSoft to spend some legal fees on this equaly ridiculous claim. Anyway, lets pray it does not negatively affect gw2's release date 
Quote:
|
A judge has refused to dismiss a "bizarre" civil suit brought by a Nanaimo man, who is seeking $2 billion in damages from Microsoft, Telus, Wal-Mart, the RCMP and other defendants over alleged brain-wave control, satanic rituals and witchcraft. Justice Fraser Wilson heard from five lawyers on Monday, arguing that the case brought forward by Jerry Rose is so outrageous it should have been dismissed immediately. Rose's claim states "that he has been subject to invasive brain computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery" and also named the University of B.C. and the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons as defendants. Jennifer Millbank, a Nanaimo lawyer hired to represent Microsoft in the case, said that Rose's two-page statement of claim is "nothing short of bizarre" and that it would be "impossible this would ever be a case for trial on the merits." But Wilson, while admitting the case was "certainly an unusual one," said he had to be convinced there was nothing in Rose's claim that could not be litigated. Millbank said there is no scientific evidence to prove brain control is a possibility. "I think this is akin to someone saying they sustained injuries because their boat fell off the edge of the world," said Millbank. "My clients ought not to be subjected to what is a nuisance lawsuit." Wilson raised the notorious case of a CIA-sponsored experiment at McGill University between 1957 and 1964 in which people without their consent were given LSD and other drugs. But Millbank said that in this case there are no material facts that a court could act upon. Microsoft had no direct contact with Rose, and his statement of claim gives no details on how or when the defendants may have harmed him, Millbank said. Rose, reading from a three-page statement, said the mind-control harassment continues with "brain-drain technologies" under the RCMP and tactics to prevent his case from going forward. Rose said he is asking for $2 billion because of a computer technology he invented that was stolen from him. "I'm not a lawyer, but I have proof," said Rose. |
C
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Kumlekar
Worlds.com's goal is pretty obvious (they wish to settle with NC,or establish precedent in texas court against a foriegn company), but from a computer science standpoint, they have very little supporting them. While MMO's use some aspects of their design, I highly doubt they can claim to have invented a server. As was stated above, their system is oriented around the user's avatar, and not the game world.
In addition it seems that the interface is part of the patent and is a chat program design with movement only based on mouse controls on a grid based system. I think we can all agree that we do not move on grids in GW. (Think about gvg with that LOL) Now for the legal standpoint: I don't know my MMO history or patent laws as well as I should, but as far as i know there were no MMOs operating with a 3D engine before 1997. NWN was 2D from my understanding, and ultima was isometric. I don't know the exact release date of EQ, but it seems to me that that is probably the most important piece of information to determine if there were preexisting examples of this design. |
Who knows, even Trade Wars may qualify depending upon the definition they take for client and virtual world.
M
I'll leave GW and start whatever worlds.com has there!
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...1902706_2.html
Quote:
| Worlds.com, which has created more than 45 virtual worlds, has a "filth filter" to prevent profanity. In one world, a group of users developed an animated bird that drops an unpleasant substance on the heads of outlaws, known as "griefers" in virtual-world lingo. |
Do not worry, this is something that happens often, though not that big in news. It's going to end like SCO's attempt to claim patent rights on all Unix OSs out there: they'll reach an agreement, earn big time, then disappear in a puff of smoke, with their reputation at an all-time low; then other companies will make sure this doesn't happen again. Obviously, Blizzard Activision could be aimed by this action, worlds.com wants a share of the big money-cow pie.
