Activision Blizzard sued by Worlds Inc. over alleged patent infringement

It seems that in a lawsuit recently filed by Worlds Inc., the company has alleged that Activision Blizzard has infringed upon one of their patents. This patent has been described as a “system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space”, claiming that some of Activision Blizzard’s games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft are in violation of the patent and are currently seeking compensation for use of their technology in their games. Worlds Inc. CEO Thom Kidrin was quoted as saying:

“Technologies created by Worlds have helped the businesses of virtual worlds gaming and the sale of virtual goods to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry […] 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.”

This is actually not the first time that Worlds Inc. has gone after game publishers. Back in 2008 the company filed a lawsuit against NCSoft over the City of Heroes game. The case was eventually dismissed a couple of years later in 2010 after an undisclosed settlement was arrived at between NCSoft and Worlds Inc. Activision Blizzard has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: activision blizzard, Legal, Patent