Worlds.com Plans to Sue WoW Over 'Virtual World' Patent
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Juggynaut on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 38 Comments Tags: lawsuit, lawyer, ncsoft, patent, second life, silicon alley insider, sue, thom kidrin, virtual world, worlds.com
Juggynaut on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 38 Comments Tags: lawsuit, lawyer, ncsoft, patent, second life, silicon alley insider, sue, thom kidrin, virtual world, worlds.com 
Silicon Alley Insider is reporting today that Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin claims that the idea of scalable virtual worlds with thousands of users is his company's intellectual property, and that Worlds will sue anyone who refuses to license the idea. Worlds currently has a lawsuit against NCSoft, publisher of such games as City of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars, and Lineage II. Should litigation against NCSoft succeed, Kidrin 'absolutely' plans on moving on to sue MMO industry leaders such as World of Warcraft and Second Life.The patents originally were developed by the Starlight Starbright Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for seriously ill children. They had the idea of creating Starbright World, a virtual world for the enjoyment of children who may not have been able to interact or explore due to illness. The patents cover an architecture for enabling thousands of users in a 3D space, and Worlds.com now owns the rights to those patents.
Of course, I am no lawyer, but the idea of thousands of users in a 3D space sounds like just about every MMO out there right now, save those that linger in two dimensions. Should the courts rule in Worlds.com's favor, it will make such games more expensive due to licensing fees, which may translate into higher costs for you and me. We'll have to wait this one out and see how things go in the NCSoft case. Check out Silicon Alley Insider for more details.
Reader Comments (38)
AAAMMEEERICAAAA AMEEERRIIICAA!!!
They have no case. Otherwise NASA (ex.Mazewar) which pretty much invented the FPS Genre should sue all the other FPS Franchises, including Sierra games, ID Software, Activision, and countless others. It's Worlds.com failed attempt to make money in an economic downturn.
To Worlds.com,
Your only hope is Johnny Cochran using "the glove defense" to win this one.
But let's be real here, this will never make it trail. The gaming industry in whole would be the true target. Besides that, wouldn't it be the graphics engine developers that really "broke" the patent? (granted a lot of game developers are the engine developers too but still.)
I agree with many of you on here because it is not in rights to sue a sucessful company. I guess it is just unfortunate that people do not want to spend free time playing games like, "failed wars!"
And i am most certian that blizzard has some kind of license to publish this game we know as WoW so i fell also.... they have no case.
Hahahahahaha, that fails bigtime!
Worlds.com, Wannabe rich how cute!
keep dreaming...
did this company just get the patent or are they just now realizing MMOs exist?
so they are suing blizzard for having an mmo? WTF? every single game has a world and every single game is 3d. so now there can be no video games?
WOW..... it seems everybody is trying to sue these days! "you lost my modded xbox 360! Im suing for ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" wtf?!?! People are just so F***in lazy they cant go make the money themselves!
Anyway, they wont win... that is retarded!
/target Worlds.com
/facepalm
Has April Fool's Day moved ahead of schedule? As this is the biggest joke I've ever heard.
SHENANIGANS!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone grab your brooms lets go beat the crap out of World.com
epic fail, worlds.com. shame on you!
Lets go sue (fill in restaurant here) because they sell pre cooked food and that was (fill in another restaurant here)'s idea.... then again if someone can win a lawsuit for spilling hot coffee without a pre warning of the coffee being hot and actually win who knows what can happen.