If you don't remember Worlds.com is the company suing NCSoft for infringing on it's patent(s) because they had a patent that basically gave them IP rights to MMO's in general. Well, a little while ago they had got a new patent.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Worldscom-Is-Awarded-Third-prnews-14596991.html?.v=1
I'm actually surprised that most sites gave up with Worlds.com as this new patent can be used in their case against NCSoft. Which as of March 11th 2009 is still active, and it seems to still be active to this date.
http://www.businessinsider.com/worldscom-ceo-were-absolutely-going-to-sue-second-life-and-world-of-warcraft-2009-3
They've also stated that if they win they're going after Activision Blizzard for WoW and Second Life.
I wonder how all this will play out.

That man needs to lay off the drugs.

The Worlds.com man?

Yea, for thinking he can actually win against NCSoft and that he can take on WoW if he does.

Well, to tie in the fact he's suing the court that 88% patent plantiffs win, it seems pretty good. Then the creator of UO is suing NCSoft now, so their resources are a bit split. With the take on of WoW, I even call that risky, but due to the lazyness ofcourtcases they look at previous courtcases to help speed things up. So if they see a Win or three, then when they're more then likely going to side with those cases.

Having a patent on the idea of MMOs in general seems like total bullshit to me. This man strikes me as nothing more then a conniving, greedy c**ksucker.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/1/2/

Lol, thank you for that guitar.

I applaud you for that guitar.

Chi:
Having a patent on the idea of MMOs in general seems like total bullshit to me. This man strikes me as nothing more then a conniving, greedy c**ksucker.

What about the guy who modded a GCN controller SLIGHTLY and patented a controller with two joysticks. Then he won the case against Nintendo, but lost the appeal as he couldn't replace GCN and Classic controllers, then wound up paying Nintendo. He even sued Microsoft and Microsoft paid him. For some reason he didn't even attack Sony. Patent suits have been really dumb lately. They've been suing over things that a lot of the market already does.

Patent lawsuits in general are ridiculous, since they almost always seem to involve a patent that was made for the sole reason of starting lawsuits.

I've seen a few that were legit, but I agree that alot of them are stupid.

I think the army of lawyers Blizzard would conscript would make worlds.com pee itself in fear. Not only that, I imagine they would counter-sue for wasting their time and money, negating any profit derived from a win against NCSoft.

Of course, I wholly expect NCSoft to win this suit.

EDIT:

Weren't they awarded the patent in 2007?

Didn't both UO & EQ come out in the mid/late 90s?

Lineage was released in 1998. Lineage 2 was in 2003.

How exactly is a patent awarded in 2007 retroactive? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't NCSoft and the rest be angry that this guy patented a system already in place a decade prior?

No, their orignal patent, which the law suit is based off of, is from the early 90's. His patent comes from his thing being an interactive world for sick children, which was started a long while ago*. The deal is his lawyers recently told him to sue, and so he went with his lawyers.

*How many years you wish to choose.

This case can be closed in 3 letters: MUD

The patent is for a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space." and was filed sometime in the 90s.

MUDs had been doing this very thing for a decade at that point. It's a frivolous patent that should have never been awarded since it was not an original or new idea. It took an existing unpatented entity and claimed to have invented it.

NC need to hire me as a lawyer.

In a 3D world, Mr Cheese, not just any world. It's for people interacting in a 3D world which they're the first to do.Also, people have made the MUD exmaple, but as I stated, there's the person who has the patent to 2 joy stick controller AFTER the GCN controller was made and sued Nintendo with their own creation.

mrcheese:
This case can be closed in 3 letters: MUD

The patent is for a "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space." and was filed sometime in the 90s.

Isn't that called the Internet?