Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Patent Law Absurdity: Worlds.com Claims Ownership of the Concept of MMOs

I came across this Penny Arcade comic today, which is troubling. Worlds.com is suing NCsoft for patent infringement, claiming that the game developer has infringed on their "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space" patent. Yeah, you read that right. More information can be read here and here.

If the suit is successful, I'd suspect Worlds.com to go after all other developers of MMOs. What will happen to World of Warcraft? The new Warhammer: Age of Reckoning? Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures? And the dozens of other existing MMOs?

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