World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard has been fighting a lawsuit for nine years, but a judge has officially thrown out the case due to the abstract nature of the patents in question.
Worlds Incorporated filed a complaint against Activision Blizzard back in 2012, claiming that World of Warcraft and Call of Duty infringed on five of its patents. This lawsuit was further expanded back in 2014 to include Destiny and developer Bungie.
Worlds Incorporated is described as a leading intellectual property developer and it holds licenses of patents related to 3D online virtual worlds. Five of these patents were allegedly infringed upon by Activision Blizzard according to WI, particularly patents that organized and displayed multiple player avatars in shared 3D spaces. WI alleged that it had invented the idea of 3D multiplayer with servers that ‘filtered’ the number of users visible to any player, but due to the lack of specificity from the plaintiff, the case was finally thrown out nine years later.
The attorneys representing Worlds Incorporated asked the court to order Activision Blizzard to cease the alleged patent infringement and award damages in exchange for years of infringement. The case was ultimately thrown out in the US by District Judge Denise Casper who claimed that the five patents are too abstract and aren't inherently inventive or sufficient enough to infringe on. These patents aren't sufficiently transformative to be legally patented according to Judge Casper, who claimed the 3D multiplayer ideas aren't "patent-eligible applications."
Activision Blizzard's attorneys have claimed for several years that Worlds Incorporated's ideas were too abstract to infringe on its patents, and it looks like the US courts agree as of today. When Bungie and Destiny were dragged into the lawsuit, there was a developer-publisher agreement in place which resulted in an appeal to the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts. This appeal resulted in several more years of litigation and the case was eventually thrown out nine years later.
The lack of specificity about its five patents made Worlds Incorporated's lawsuit increasingly more difficult to win. US District Judge Casper claimed that the patent infringement was ultimately "invalid as a matter of law," making the lawsuit a waste of nine years and lots of money in lawyer fees for WI.
While Worlds Incorporated may be a leading IP developer and patent licensee, these patents are too vague and aren't transformative enough in the eyes of the US District court. Since this lawsuit has been in progress for nine years, it's surely a relief for Activision Blizzard that it's over now and that it didn't have to reward damages as a result.
World of Warcraft is available right now for Mac and PC.
Source: PCGamesN