World of Warcraft Patent Lawsuit Thrown Out

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The U.S. District Court for Massachusetts tossed out the 9 year-long patents lawsuit against World of Warcraft game-maker Activision Blizzard.

U.S. District Judge Denise Casper agreed with Activision Blizzard’s attorneys, saying that Worlds’ patents are only “abstract ideas.” And that the concept under review is not transformative enough to be legally patentable. She disagreed with the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) from January 2020.

The judge says that “Worlds’ asserted claims use a general-purpose computer to employ well-known filtering or crowd control methods and means that ultimate use same to display graphical results and generate a view of the virtual world, none of which is inherently inventive or sufficient to ‘transform’ the claimed abstract idea into a patent-eligible application.” 

Judge Casper granted Activision Blizzard’s summary judgment request. And she also dismissed Worlds’ infringement claims as “invalid as a matter of law.”

Worlds Incorporated patents 3D online virtual worlds

Worlds Incorporated is an intellectual property developer and the owner of several patents related to 3D online virtual worlds.”