rule number one when being a patant troll. dont sue people who's product predates your patant. Said products are, by definition, prior art.

even paris hilton could figure that one out...

I am getting tired of people registering these 'broad brush' patents, waiting for someone to be doing well and then trying to cash in. The system is broken. The people issuing these patents need to do some investigation before issuing them. I suggest that they write this patent on a very small piece of paper and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Thus preventing anyone else from ever being so stupid again.

I hate these things, it just an example of the worst in people. Someone, under the guise of a company, tries to stop the rest of world doing stuff or at least making people and companies with no connections to theirs pay them money. Its trying to use a legal system for absolute robbery, nothing more.

and not the MMO powerhouse named Blizzard?

F**king cowards

The B&W i,age looks suspiciously like the Blaxxun VRML chat interface...

As far as I remember that dates to about 1995.

patent troll is troll

It's obvious they're just testing the waters with NCSoft and if they pull it off they'll head off against Blizzards overpaid and rather sizeable force of lawyers.

Worlds.com critically sues you for $500,000,000.

Yeah, right... in their dreams ;)

Thou shalt not bear false witness...

in a land that demanded n eye for an eye would have saved the lives of not a few people in Britain at one time or another.

And kept the police a lot cleaner than the slime balls they are these days.

Let them have it.

But know accuse an ex husband of paedophilia and they won't do you for perjury even if he can prove he is innocent (not that I can imagine how) puts a man at risk of ten years inside and a life of a marked man for eternity and what is the punishment for perjury? Community service for a month?

There are greater crimes to bother with than patent trolls in east Texas.

that patent picture looks exactly like the Lobby from Microsoft's V-chat that was released back in December 1995.

bit too much money there for them to get anything but a royal butt kicking. But seriously the US patent system is beyond a joke.

I mean, c'mon, who cares either way?

Paul: part of the reason that the Patent Office issues these is likely that they are overworked and/or understaffed.

Yeah, there's a buttload of prior art for this one- it's a lame attempt at getting 'free' money from someone.

I should imagine this is a warm up. Its aim is surely to take on a smaller player who can't afford the expensive lawyers Blizzard can first, get them to buckle, then use that as evidence against people like Blizzard and Sony Online Entertainment (Look, NCSoft folded, their systems are similar to yours, therefore using deductive reasoning you owe us big bucks).

Fire, 'cause its where people like this belong.

You pay us some money on a regular basis and well make sure your store doesn't, oh I dunno, get damaged in some way, capeesh?

This will be quick. Given the intelligence of judges, I expect (troll)worlds.com to be victorious and awarded about $700 billion in damages with and interesting twist, a stipulation that the money is to be distributed by Hank Paulson.

"after the decision Judge Jim Pansey was overheard on his cell phone saying, 'Hankey, I just scored a load from Korea. Spend it well and don't forget my account in Grand Cayman buddy.'"

Guild Wars would fit the html aspect of the patent more than CoH, but even still...what a wank of a lawsuit.

Wonder if they were put up to it by a competitor, or one of the aggressors was a CoH addict and feels screwed by recent pvp changes with issue 13.

They deserve to lose just for their poor grammar.

There's way too many trolls to deal with here let alone the joys of virtual worlds. Time to sort the patents. Sack the trolls and save the girl!

Mines the one with the club of troll bashing +50Bn

to register a patent on a round object that rotates on a central spindle.

There should be a few pennies in that one.

Nuff said.

http://meridian59.neardeathstudios.com/

of America's love affair with its own legal system. I would say that the American legal system may be the eventual downfall of America as a civilisation in much the same way way that Rome got too greedy etc..

WoW's "message of the day" stuff is in an HTML box sat along side your 3d avatar (occasional game crashes can expose malformed HTML tags in that box, and other popup messages). So I guess it's covered.

Not that I've ever played WoW, honest.

I know it's probably naive, but is there no mechanism for fighting the patent system itself? Surely nobody takes it seriously any more. Why aren't people turning their lawyers against the system instead?

The UK Patent Office is rather more thorough when digging out prior art. I recall that one patent for raising sunken ships using inflatable airbags was denied because Donald Duck had raised a sunken ship with ping pong balls in a Disney cartoon.

And speaking of overly broad patents, check this out:

http://www.nukees.com/d/20000811.html

Skip forward a week or so to see Gav wheel out his armoured lawmech.

I know it's probably naive, but is there no mechanism for fighting the patent system itself? Surely nobody takes it seriously any more. Why aren't people turning their lawyers against the system instead?

You man they aught to find lawyers willing to bite the hand that feeds IT?

Are you serious?

Because the United States Patent and Trademark Office is part of the US Department of Commerce, in turn one of the Cabinet offices of the US government's Executive branch (the branch led by the President). Lawyers cannot turn on the system because it's the system that empowers them. Under the US Constitution, the US government itself cannot be sued (and the USPTO, being part of the Department of Commerce, is part of the government) except under extraordinary circumstances in a specific federal court. Changes to the USPTO would likely need to be made by the head of that office or someone directly above him (these include the Secretary of Commerce and the President).

You'll all be sorry when this one gets granted.

"A method of enabling organic masses to fuel themselves by utilising airborne molecules in internal energy transformations".

You wanna breathe? That's a quid!

Pants :( You're right. Back to Azeroth for me, RL is way too frightening.

Scarily enough, I was a member of Worlds Chat a long time ago in a galaxy far far away..

Yes they do use HTML for alot (if not all) of the in game chat channels and pretty much anything with words in it.

Though my biggest concern is this:

If they are sueing NCSoft over use of HTML to display and generate messages among other things doesnt that mean they have patented HTML and will shortly sue everyone on the net? Cause we are all guilty then of patent infringement.

Hmm time to go over and check out the place then make some flame-broiled comments for shits and giggles.

/mines the one with the fire on the back....no its actually on fire

I submit Pneumodesmus Newmani as prior art.

Sorry.

"Hey NCsoft, wanna borrow some lawyers?"

An injunction followed by a pay-off (licence agreement) is the best they can hope for. And ala, they might just get it: the US courts are somewhat parocial in regards to US company's IP being enforced on non-US companies. Had they gone for another US company, this wouldn't get off the ground.

Epic FAIL!

I mean I do remember VRML, oh god what a controted thing that was or maybe it was just the editor I was using. Now unless any of these actually RUN in the browser, which I doubt or they specifically use HTML encoded packets (only way to find out is to sniff), then Worlds.com can well go stick that patent where the sun don't shine..

That patent is so broad it's like me saying patenting "white paint" and then sueing anyone manufacturing white or "nearly" white paint..

Now where did I put my mage spell book I think I need to go fire a few frost bolts at something.

Judge needs to award NCSoft twice whatever World.com was after (from World) plus reimburse all expenses incurred by NCSoft because of this.

Attorneys representing World need to be ordered to pay NCSoft similar amounts (and be suspended from private legal practice for, say, five years -- maybe they can go work for district attorneys in the meantime).

Anyone associated with granting this patent needs to be fired and banned from all future government employment.