Comments on: MMORPG Armageddon?

By: MMORPG Armageddon?

MMORPG Armageddon? — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:09:31 +0000

[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMMORPG Armageddon? December 30th, 2008 While catching up on the news this week, I came across an interesting tidbit at Virtual Worlds News: Worlds.com has sued NCSoft, the publisher of such games as City of Heroes, Lineage II, and the ill-fated Tabula Rasa. Worlds.com was one of the early developers of virtual worlds; WebWorld, their earliest, launched in 1994. That’s practically prehistory for the WorldWide Web. It turns out that, a decade or so ago, Worlds.com filed for two patents. One [...]

By: Lance Dyas

Lance Dyas — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:28:17 +0000

Lets hope find their ability to follow up on this can of silliness… limited

http://techliberation.com/2008/10/30/goodbye-to-most-business-method-software-patents/

By: Tommi

Tommi — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:51:21 +0000

Yet another case against the usefulness of patents. They seem more and more harmful, the more I hear about their effects.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:12:53 +0000

True; it seems to me, too, as though they’re hoping the various companies will be willing to pay them to make the specter of a lawsuit go away. And I hadn’t considered the venue; that could make things… interesting.

The patent seems ridiculously broad to me, too, but broadness is the name of the game in patent applications. I’m not sure I should be surprised.

The real problem here is, I suspect, that the patent inspector knew next to nothing about computers or online games, and didn’t research as thoroughly as might be hoped.

By: Ben Overmyer

Ben Overmyer — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:52:46 +0000

This strikes me as something of a submarine lawsuit, though there's enough legal weight in favor of the defense to make it almost a non-issue. The real problem is that this case will be tried in Texas, and Texan judges and juries don't really take kindly to foreign companies (e.g. NCSoft) on American soil. That's what I'd be concerned about, not the actual lawsuit itself. Ben Overmyer´s last blog post: On MUDs and online gaming

By: Mad Brew

Mad Brew — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:36:41 +0000

Wow, or WoW! Quite a ballsy move on Worlds.com's part. I would have to say "Obviousness" might be a case too. There were already 2D MMOs by August of 2000, and one would think that the next evolution would be the move to 3D. The "Novelty" criterion might be a good defense too, if there were any published material about 3D MMOs. It might be a smart move on other 3D MMO game companies to contribute resources to NCSoft's defense. I also think that the patent is too abstract to be enforceable. But I'm no IP lawyer. Mad Brew´s last blog post: RPP-099: Gamer Elitism