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-Ross

On this day in history, as reported by Wired.com, on May 26, 1981, the USPTO granted the first pure software patent, U.S. Patent No. 4,270,182, to Satya Pal Asija. Video games are computer software, so the '182 patent really was a groundbreaker for the industry. The software was a natural-language-interface program called Swift-Answer, an acronym for the contrived name Special Word-Indexed Full-Text Alpha-Numeric Storage With Easy Retrieval.

Online chat company Paltalk Holdings, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation have formally dismissed the patent suit between them in the Eastern District of Texas.

In the suit, Paltalk alleged that the chat and communication features in Microsoft's XBox Live service infringed Paltalk's patents 5,822,523 and 6,226,686, both entitled "Server-group Messaging System for Interactive Applications," and sought tens of millions of dollars in damages. Microsoft alleged that the asserted claims were invalid, and that their service did not infringe those patents.

The case went to trial in March of 2009, but it abruptly ended when the parties announced they had reached a settlement. The formal dismissal is a procedural step that formally closes the court's books on the case.

The settlement means those patents have avoided having their validity and scope tested in that court, so they live to fight another day. No word yet on whether Paltalk will target some other unlucky online gaming company, but we'll keep an eye out and keep you posted.

For those keeping track at home, the case cite is: Paltalk Holdings, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., No. 2:06cv367 (E.D. Tx, filed Sept. 12, 2006).

Two items of note, one of which is in two parts:

1) Square Enix reportedly kills Chrono Trigger fan project based on alleged copyright infringement.

2) Duke Nukem Forever news...
2.1) 3 minutes of Duke Nukem Forever footage released, but...
2.2) It appears that the 3 minutes is all we'll ever see, because 3D Realms has reportedly shut down!

Bummer.

Samuel Michael Keller v. Electronic Arts inc. et al.
case number 09-cv-1967
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

From Law360:

Law360, New York (May 06, 2009) -- A former quarterback for Arizona State University has filed a putative class action against Electronic Arts Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletics Association for appropriating and using the images and attributes of college sports players in its popular line of interactive video games in violation of NCAA rules, which prohibit commercialization of college players.

Sam Keller, once a starting quarterback for ASU's and University of Nebraska’s football teams, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claiming that EA video games like NCAA March Madness, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball violate NCAA rules prohibiting the use of college athletes’ names and images in commercial ventures.

It looks like Mr. Keller is trying to get class action status, which could make this a huge case and a potential black eye for the NCAA and EA. Apparently EA has copied the appearance and likeness of players, down to their personal clothing choices and hairstyles, without actually using the players' names. However, many of the games allow users to upload rosters that include the actual players' names. This case just might have legs. We've added it to our tracking list and will keep you posted regarding substantive developments.

In an interesting twist, Taser International voluntarily dismissed this case before Linden even answered the complaint. Taser filed a Notice of Voluntary Case Dismissal on May 5, 2009. Because Linden never filed an answer, the dismissal is without prejudice and Taser could choose to refile the case at a later time if desired. But for now, this case is closed.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a nice article today about virtual law, including quotes from yours truly. The high point (at least in MY opinion):

But some attorneys set up virtual offices in the world as a kind of advertisement. Intellectual property specialists Banner & Witcoff did just that, and their virtual presence led to their attorney Ross Dannenberg representing one of the highest-profile virtual law cases so far.

Like the sex bed case, the Sailor's Cove case was not unlike many real-world disputes: It was an ownership conflict based on an alleged oral contract.

Dannenberg represented two users who assisted a virtual real estate developer in running a large group of islands in Second Life called Sailor's Cove. When the three parted ways, Dannenberg argued that the owner had previously made his two managers full partners and co-owners in the venture. But the owner of record claimed full ownership.

The case was settled out of court, with Dannenberg's clients receiving a financial settlement.

You can read the entire article here.

I'm short on time today, but Bloomberg reported a new lawsuit filed by Taser against Second Life (via its parent Linden Research Inc.). No sense in recreating the wheel, and Virtual World News has already posted a nice intro to the case here.

The case is Taser Interntional v. Linden Research in the District Court for Arizona, case 2:09-cv-00811-ROS, filed April 17, 2009.

We'll monitor developments and keep you posted.

Sorry for the delay on this, but on March 23, 2009, Worlds Inc. amended its complaint in the lawsuit against NCSoft to assert a second patent. The lawsuit now involves both of the following patents: Patent 7,181,690, Patent 7,493,558. The latter patent's claims do not appear as broad as the earlier patent's claims, which means that it will likely be more difficult to prove infringement, but also makes it generally more difficult to assert that the latter patent is invalid (because there are more elements in each claim that must be shown to be in the prior art).

For example, claim 6 of the '558 patent reads:

6. A computer readable medium with a software program recorded therein, the software program being for enabling a plurality of users to interact in a virtual space, wherein each user has a computer associated therewith, wherein each computer has a client process associated therewith, wherein each client process has an avatar associated therewith, and wherein each client process is in communication with a server process, wherein the software program includes instructions for: (a) monitoring, by each client process, a position of the avatar associated with the client process; (b) transmitting, by each client process to the server process, the position of the avatar associated with the client process; (c) transmitting, by the server process to each client process, the positions of less than all of the avatars that are not associated with the client process; and (d) determining from the positions transmitted in step (c), by each client process, a set of the avatars that are to be displayed.

Whereas claim 1 of the '690 patent reads:

1. A method for enabling a first user to interact with other users in a virtual space, wherein the first user and the other users each have an avatar and a client process associated therewith, and wherein each client process is in communication with a server process, wherein the method comprises: (a) receiving a position of less than all of the other users' avatars from the server process; and (b) determining, from the received positions, a set of the other users' avatars that are to be displayed to the first user, wherein steps (a) and (b) are performed by the client process associated with the first user.

Stay tuned...

On April 10, 2009, Nadya Suleman, who became famous in January when she gave birth to octuplets, filed a pair of trademark applications at the USPTO. She wants to use the mark for disposable diapers, cloth diapers, dresses, pants, shirts and entertainment in the nature of ongoing television programs in the field of "varity" [sic].

Sounds logical, right?

The only problem is that Austin, Texas-based Super Happy Fun Fun Inc. had already filed an application on March 12 for OCTOMOM for computer game software; downloadable mobile entertainment software such as ring tones, screen savers and wallpaper graphics; toy action figures and accessories; puppets; balloons; chess sets; golf balls; snowboards; and even Christmas tree ornaments.