Activision Blizzard sued for patent infringement of virtual worlds usage Worlds Inc. files lawsuit against ATVI for World of Warcraft and Call of Duty

Ben Strauss Staff Writer Friday 6th April 2012 Share this article Share

Companies in this article Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard is being sued for allegedly utilizing technology in a patent owned by Worlds Inc. The company claims that ATVI is violating its patent by using a "system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space."

Worlds Inc., which claims multiple titles like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty are in violation of the patent, said that it deserves compensation for using technologies developed by the company.

"Technologies created by Worlds have helped the businesses of virtual worlds gaming and the sale of virtual goods to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry," said Worlds Inc. CEO Thom Kidrin.

"While we are pleased to see that the gaming industry and its rapidly growing customer base have enthusiastically embraced our patented technologies, we deserve fair compensation for their use."

The smaller firm can count this as the second time they've filed such suit. 2008 saw them filing suit against NCSoft for the game City of Heroes. That case was dismissed in 2010 after an undisclosed settlement was attained.

Activision has yet to respond to the lawsuit.