The Worlds.com Company claims that they have a patent on a virtual world with thousands of users. The CEO of Worlds.com, Thom Kidrin seems like he is a rather opportunistic kind of guy. He does have a patent on a “scalable virtual world client-server chat system”, and another on a “system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space”. He claims any massively-multiplayer game is infringing on his patents. World.com CEO’s first target has been NCSoft, they are a Korean publisher that is responsible for the superior-but-aging “City of Heros”, and the no-subscription based game “Guild Wars.” If their litigation is a success, then Thom says that he “absolutelty” intends to follow up with lawsuits against Activision-Blizzard Entertainment, and Linden Lab. They run the games World of Warcraft and Second Life Respectively. CEO Thom states that he doesn’t want anyone he’s suing to go out of business that is not his intent. What he does want is to be paid for what he feels is his intellectual property. This will be very difficult for Thoms to prove in court. Give that thes patents were filed in 1996 and 2000. Most virtual worlds can trace their roots back much further than that to games like, “MUDs”, “MUCKs”, “MOOs”, and “MUSHes” that date from the 1980’s. We will continue to keep a watch on this story and report any developments. It’s a key case because a victory in court for Kidrin could see the fledgling virtual worlds industry being cut down and back to it’s infancy. (as reported in Silicon Alley Insider, WoW Insider, and Massively)
