Worlds.com To Extend Virtual World Lawsuit To Second Life, WoW

FiveRings writes "BusinessInsider has a story about Worlds.com, a company that inherited the patent on virtual worlds from the Starlight Starbright Foundation and is taking it to court against NCSoft over the company's various MMOs. If successful, he will press on and sue the makers of Second Life and World of Warcraft as well. The article notes that the NCSoft case is being held in east Texas, which has been a favorable venue for patent trolls in the past."

Comments

Fight fire with fire.

[LiquidHAL]

Someone needs to patent the patent troll business model and sue this guy for infringement.

Patent Acquisition and Assertion

[KronosReaver]

Already been done.
United States Patent Application - 20080270152 - October 30, 2008
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20080270152&OS=20080270152&RS=20080270152

Patent Acquisition and Assertion by a (Non-Inventor) First Party Against a Second Party

Abstract

Methods for a first party to acquire and assert a patent property against a second party are disclosed. The methods include obtaining an equity interest in the patent property. The methods further include writing a claim within the scope of the patent property. The claim is written to cover a product of the second party where the product includes a secret aspect. The methods further include filing the claim with a patent office. The methods sometimes include offering a license of the patent property to the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include asserting infringement of the claim by the second party after the patent property issues as a patent with the claim. The methods sometimes include negotiating a cross-license with the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim, where under the cross-license the first party obtains a license to an intellectual property right from the second party. The methods sometime include attempting to obtain a monetary settlement from the second party based on the assertion of infringement of the claim.

Re:Anonymous Coward.

[fractoid]

New raid instance in 3.1: Fortress of Zul'Enseesoft.

In the heart of the desert wasteland of Tek Saas, the foreboding fortress looms. Balanced for teams of 10 to 25 players, this raid offers dynamic legal battles, devious new patent challenges and exciting new loot!

Example Loot:

[Attaché Case of Litigation]
Off Hand Briefcase
Increases intellect by 52
Decreases social conscience by 22
"This case looks expensive"

[The Mighty Pen]
One Hand Dagger
Increases writer's strike by 28
On use: Wraps target in red tape, immobilizing them for 4 seconds.
"This pen is very sharp."