http://kotaku.com/5119944/worldscom-fil ... -to-follow



TL;DR A company called Worlds applied to patent the idea of MMO worlds in 2000, the application was verified last year, and they are not suing NCSoft for patent infringement.

NCSoft is a South Korean MMO company, with titles including City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Tabula Rasa[lol].

The case is being made in TEXAS - meaning it will be an American company vs. a Korean company in front of a TEXAS jury.




If NCSoft loses this case, which is a strong possibility, a precedent will be set giving Worlds the authority to make moves towards other, more powerful MMO companies (including BLIZZARD you WoWfags).

Um yes wow is going to get shit canned.

Or consider WoW to soon be single player. Play the game with no interaction lol.

Well, what about every other game with in-game chatting capabilities? Counter-Strike whether text or mic, Steam friends.

Counter strike is not an MMO.

I just read "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" and I was like 'Ummm, everything??'

Yeah. It's a tough one.

God bless the rubber stamp patent board.

It most likely won't stand, especialy if Blizzard-Activision helps NCSoft out by donating some members of their legal team and helping with the fees. If they're smart that's what they'll do, anyway

It depends more on how the law is applied in the courtroom than the legal teams. From a positivist point of view it's an open and book case: the plaintiff has a patent, the defendant violated the patent laws, the defendant needs to compensate. If Texas interprets the law in a more "natural" (see: naturalism) way, however, the case against NCSoft will be rather flimsy.