Major MMO Devs Targeted in Patent Lawsuit
The Boston Globe's online portal is reporting on a patent infringement lawsuit aimed at several MMO developers. Paltalk Holdings Inc. is the plaintiff in the case, claiming that their data-sharing patents (which were purchased from a company named HearMe in 2002) were violated by MMO developers.
The specific technology in question is one that simultaneously displays the same gaming environment to hundreds of online gamers. Paltalk did defend against its patents once before, against the multiplayer tech used in Microsoft Corp.'s Halo series, settling out of court mid-trial. This gives Paltalk a precedent, and helps strengthen its argument.
Another crucial factor in this case is the location of the suit's filing, Marshall Texas. According to Boston.com, the U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas is known for its "plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction," and was also the location of Paltalk's former lawsuit against Microsoft.
Turbine (Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online), Sony (Everquest), Activision Blizzard (World of Warcraft), NCSoft (Guild Wars) and Jagex (Runescape) were the developers named in the suit.
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-warcraft/1025999p1.html
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I hate copyright law. It's so broken and limiting towards anything. If those bastards can prove me the mentioned companies actually copied their ideas then fine, but somehow I doubt those fucks would have made anythiing even remotely close to those games.
Tag(thx fkusumot) - "Yet again I completely fail to see your point..."
HD vs Wii, PC vs HD: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=93374
Why Regenerating Health is a crap game mechanic: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=3986420
gamrReview's broken review scores: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=4170835
