Worlds.com sues NCsoft over MMO patent

[nurtsi]

Apparently Worlds.com has managed to patent some really basic 3D MMO stuff and are now sueing NCsoft for it [source]. Apparently the patent in question was issued to them in 2007, but it was filed in continuation with an earlier patent they filed on November 12th, 1996 (so any prior art should have been around before that).

From the top of my head, I can't come up with any prior art. UO was released in 1997 (and wasn't even 3D). EQ came in 1999. I guess they're trying their luck with NCsoft first and going after Blizzard next. Gotta  software patents.

[schild]

Saw this in my email this morning. I'm not sure what they're planning by going after NCsoft first.

Also, lol patents.

[Lum]

The patent in question was actually filed in 2000: http://www.google.com/patents?id=wv5-AAAAEBAJ&dq=7,181,690  However it claims to be a continuation of a patent filed in 1996. Can't find the 1996 patent online, but in any event there are plenty of Compuserve-era games from the 80s which meet the client-server multiplayer definition handily.

I had some things to say here -> http://www.brokentoys.org/2008/12/29/our-legal-system-continues-to-suffer-from-random-drooling/   tl;dr version: it's standard patent piracy, down to the venue they filed in. They're shaking down NCsoft on the assumption they're small enough not to have lawyers in house. (They're wrong, btw.)

[Tale]

To be fair, worlds.com really were pioneers. They had me online as an avatar in a 3D-ish virtual world, chatting, in April 1995 (Worlds Chat).

Later that year they launched AlphaWorld, of which Second Life is a blatant copy - you entered the world at ground zero, you could fly, you could claim land and build structures on it, etc (this blogger writes about the similarities). My PC was too slow to bother much with AlphaWorld, but it was an incredible 3D world for its time, filled with clever user-generated content. Gamers were in it - one of the prominent structures near ground zero was an interactive 3D home of the Adrenaline Vault (avault.com, which could probably sue a lot of today's gaming sites for stealing its ideas).

But that was in the mid-1990s, before the dotcom boom and bust, when they were Worlds Inc. They had cutting edge smarts, with big, good intentions (the attitude of Google and/or Linden Labs today). After the dotcom bust, as worlds.com, having laid off almost every staff member, they became old and irrelevant. This lawsuit is a sad little fart in the wrong direction.

[kildorn]

Saw this in my email this morning. I'm not sure what they're planning by going after NCsoft first.

Also, lol patents.

Horrible idea to get cheap wins so you can bully the big players into settlements.

Going after big fish right off the bat just means being drowned by lawyers. I'd lay odds they picked their target after NCsoft's layoff announcements thinking "they must be broke, we've got them right where we want them!"

[Lucas]

To be fair, worlds.com really were pioneers. They had me online as an avatar in a 3D-ish virtual world, chatting, in April 1995 (Worlds Chat).

Later that year they launched AlphaWorld, of which Second Life is a blatant copy - you entered the world at ground zero, you could fly, you could claim land and build structures on it, etc (this blogger writes about the similarities). My PC was too slow to bother much with AlphaWorld, but it was an incredible 3D world for its time, filled with clever user-generated content. Gamers were in it - one of the prominent structures near ground zero was an interactive 3D home of the Adrenaline Vault (avault.com, which could probably sue a lot of today's gaming sites for stealing its ideas).

I remember Alpha World back in the day: it was about a year and half before the launch of Ultima Online: a few users built a small version of Britain using that software, with an Avatar shrine, a small crypt, a castle and some other random stuff. Pretty cool.

[Murgos]

I didn't read the whole patent but the first parts don't seem to be non-obvious or not to have prior-art.

Sending position data of some of the other clients from the server to a client so that the client can draw a graphic at those positions?

Um, MUDs have done this since 1976 and its bloody obvious.

[Lantyssa]

Ignoring all other arguments, couldn't they go with a "didn't enforce it for eight years; twelve if you go by the 1996 patent"?  Then point at all the precursor companies and the fact that NCSoft's initial games originated outside the US.

[Venkman]

They only got the patent itself 22 months ago, so unfortunately the lack of enforcement thing won't work against them.

But in any case, whatever worlds.com once, their efforts them borrowed from the prior art that existed and has long since become part of the general domain. Unless NC doesn't want to make the effort, and if a judge doesn't throw this out while laughing, they'll lose after having spent whatever loan they took against what they thought they could win. Seem a like the usual patent troll activity.

[Krakrok]

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

Shadow of Yserbius 1993. Or even Doom II in 1994.

Their Method 1-4 sounds like they received a patent on LOD line of sight culling.

[Mrbloodworth]

That patent, is really broad. If this works for them, they could potentially sue every online game maker ever.

Me thinks the reason they went after NCsoft, is they most likely have x-worlds employees, that may have reimplemented their specific way of doing things, that's the only way i could ever see this working out for worlds.com. Like, at all.

[Venkman]

But the whole industry uses these conventions in some way (because of the generality of definition). And given both the time span and the family nature of this industry, I'm sure you could do a three degrees of separation between worlds.com and, well, everyone

This is mostly just another good example of why our current patent system is so screwy.