Back in December, we passed along some information about an intellectual property lawsuit filed by virtual worlds company Worlds.com. Apparently, that company holds a patent to protect avatar-based interaction in a virtual world, and they've decided to enforce it.
The first target of Worlds.com was South Korean developer NCsoft. The civil case has not yet reached court.
Now, according to this CNN Money article, Worlds.com is now taking aim at other companies that manage virtual worlds-based games. Linden Lab (the company behind Second Life) and Activision Blizzard (World of Warcraft) are apparently next on the lawsuit list if the NCsoft case is successful.
It goes without saying that the results of these cases could have serious implications for the online gaming world. Avatar-based online games have become ubiquitous throughout the industry. I still find it amazing that this patent is even allowed to exist.
Worlds.com lawyers claim that these suits aren't intended to constitute a "legal shakedown", but that's exactly what's going on here. Obviously the company has been holding this patent for awhile. Why wait until well after the explosion of online gaming to sue? Sounds to me like some greedy executives over at Worlds.com have dollar signs in their eyes.
Fortunately, their plans may be thwarted yet -- as we also mentioned before, there are a number of avatar-based online games out there that predate the Worlds.com patent ("prior art" in the legal world). This whole situation is still ridiculous, though. If Worlds.com loses (which I obviously hope happens), the USPTO should revoke their patent. It should never have been awarded to begin with.
Here's the CNN Money article again: Worlds.com CEO: We're 'Absolutely' Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft
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