Sony Corp.and games manufacturer Activision Blizzard Inc. were sued by a company that claims “World of Warcraft” and other online games use its inventions. Also named in the complaint filed by PalTalk Holdings Inc. were NCsoft Corp., South Korea’s biggest online-game maker and developer of the “Guild Wars” series of games; U.K. developer Jagex Ltd., maker of the “Runescape” online game; and Turbine Inc., which has a “Lord of the Rings” online game.

Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without authority
makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the
United States, or imports into the United States any patented invention
during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.

Whoever actively induces infringement of a patent shall be liable as an
infringer...

They've also sued Microsoft for taking "inventions" that Microsoft had in Halo.
They sure have "invented" alot.

Who are they anyway?

Paltalk is the premier provider of software and technology for real-time, rich media, interactive social networking and is the owner of 10 Patents with a number of additional Patents Pending. The Paltalk platform powers the largest collection of video based communities and continues to grow since it was launched in 1998. Paltalk now boasts millions of active members with nearly 100,000 people simultaneously chatting in rooms engaged in lively dialogues, meeting new friends, discussing the stock market, singing karaoke, and attending family reunions. The Paltalk community is vibrant due to the high quality of the room environments supported by a range of free moderation tools. In addition, Paltalk delivers original programming geared to the interests of the community. Paltalk Interactive events have hosted such entertainment celebrities as William Shatner and radio personalities Opie and Anthony, among others. Paltalk supports IM pals on AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ and is available as a free download.

Paltalk is a service that allows users to communicate via instant messaging, voice and video chat. It offers thousands of chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own on any topic. Paltalk is available in two formats: PaltalkScene and PaltalkExpress.
...

The Paltalk community is vibrant due to the high quality of the room environments supported by a range of free moderation tools. In addition, Paltalk delivers original programming geared to the interests of the community

A method for deploying interactive applications over a network containing host computers and group messaging servers is disclosed. The method operates in a conventional unicast network architecture comprised of conventional network links and unicast gateways and routers. The hosts send messages containing destination group addresses by unicast to the group messaging servers. The group addresses select message groups maintained by the group messaging servers. For each message group, the group messaging servers also maintain a list of all of the hosts that are members of the particular group. In its most simple implementation, the method consists of the group server receiving a message from a host containing a destination group address. Using the group address, the group messaging server then selects a message group which lists all of the host members of the group which are the targets of messages to the group. The group messaging server then forwards the message to each of the target hosts. In an interactive application, many messages will be arriving at the group server close to one another in time. Rather than simply forward each message to its targeted hosts, the group messaging server aggregates the contents of each of messages received during a specified time period and then sends an aggregated message to the targeted hosts. The time period can be defined in a number of ways. This method reduces the message traffic between hosts in a networked interactive application and contributes to reducing the latency in the communications between the hosts.

So PalTalk is suing them for having chat boxes in there games...?

So PalTalk is suing them for having chat boxes in there games...?

This is a serious case of when patents go terribly, terribly wrong.

Have software patents ever gone right?

I could argue about patents and copyrights, but that'd be an entirely new argument to begin with (I welcome anyone to start this argument ; ) ).

1 7,588,661 Absorbent sheet made by fabric crepe process
2 7,585,389 Method of making fabric-creped sheet for dispensers
3 7,585,388 Fabric-creped sheet for dispensers
4 7,503,998 High solids fabric crepe process for producing absorbent sheet with in-fabric drying
5 7,416,637 Low compaction, pneumatic dewatering process for producing absorbent sheet
6 7,399,378 Fabric crepe process for making absorbent sheet

PAT. NO. Title
1 7,206,311 Efficient transmission of data to multiple network nodes
2 6,981,223 Method, apparatus and computer readable medium for multiple messaging session management with a graphical user interface
3 6,807,562 Automatic and selective assignment of channels to recipients of voice chat data
4 6,763,226 MULTIFUNCTIONAL WORLD WIDE WALKIE TALKIE, A TRI-FREQUENCY CELLULAR-SATELLITE WIRELESS INSTANT MESSENGER COMPUTER AND NETWORK FOR ESTABLISHING GLOBAL WIRELESS VOLP QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS) COMMUNICATIONS, UNIFIED MESSAGING, AND VIDEO CONFERENCING VIA THE INTERNET
5 6,728,358 Efficient buffer allocation for current and predicted active speakers in voice conferencing systems
6 6,683,858 Hybrid server architecture for mixing and non-mixing client conferencing

So let me get this straight, they're sueing Jagex over there Chat Boxes in Runescape?

If so, I hope this doesn't effect Mechscape and it's realse date!

I've set up a RSOF thread about this, gotten quite a few posts. Have you ever seen a thread hit page 2 in under a minute?


http://forum.runescape.com/c=YmcbNo0a2Ts/f...15,410,59581699

Sony Corp.and games manufacturer Activision Blizzard Inc. were sued by a company that claims “World of Warcraft” and other online games use its inventions. Also named in the complaint filed by PalTalk Holdings Inc. were NCsoft Corp., South Korea’s biggest online-game maker and developer of the “Guild Wars” series of games; U.K. developer Jagex Ltd., maker of the “Runescape” online game; and Turbine Inc., which has a “Lord of the Rings” online game.

Well their company is what would legally be termed a Patent holding company, technically a shell, their only purpose is to create patents and hold onto them and license those patents out to other companies. It isnt Illegal, nor unethical, at best its annoying and retarded.

What I find annoying is that RuneScape has been out for so long, why are they suing now? They are just proving that they are wanting money left and right here.

If only Google made MMO's...then they would get sued and the person slapping the lawsuit on them would quickly disappear and everything would be okay for everybody.

... It's ironic how all the clan chats are down in RS atm.

... It's ironic how all the clan chats are down in RS atm.

I got my patent for the English Language. Muahaha! Now... You all better start speaking Portuguese.

Mod Mmg
Jagex Mod

17-Sep-2009 17:12:25
Last edited on 17-Sep-2009 19:20:17 by Mod Kelvin
Hi Guys,
Just to bring you up to speed, whilst Paltalk is making as much PR capital as they can on this matter, Jagex have yet to be served with any court papers and I expect being a British company it will probably take a few months before that happens.

Jagex respect all 3rd party IP rights and prides itself on developing all of our own technology which has not only made us a leader in this space but also means we are confident having assessed their patents, that there is no merit to their claims and this is all simply the work of ambulance chasers trying to extort money from a successful games studio.

Naturally I can’t speak for Activision or Sony, but it goes without saying that we will vigorously defend ourselves against any claims and whilst it may take a number of months or possibly even years for Jagex to triumph, there is no doubt we will triumph. The accusations will not affect Jagex’s operation in any way nor stop us continuing to create the world’s best online games.

Cheers,
Mark Gerhard

if stuff like this didn't happen, lawyers would not exist :/

http://forum.runescape.com/c=VPZMMq-e7rU/f...5,highlight,#83

Lul-ness. It was edited by Mod Kelvin!


Thank you
Iceman

I want five dollars from each of you, right now, for using my language.

On a more serious note, though, that was my thread he responded to...

Well it is important to note that..just because you develop your own technologies doesnt mean your not indirectly or accidently copying an existing technology.

So in that regards the law suit will be very interesting.