http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/29/ncsoft_sued_by_worlds/
Go NCSoft !! nuff said 
If Lineage falls under the scope of the patent then the patent should not have been valid in the first place, is rendered useless and cannot be enforced. Interesting.
In the legal filing, Worlds.com said that given an opportunity to investigate, it is likely to find evidence that NCSoft willfully and deliberately infringed on its patent.
what jerks...
I'm gonna go get a patent on a GREAT song idea I had: it goes verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, (optional verse), chorus, end. And sue EVERY person that has made a pop song in the last century!
(I think Worlds.com will be done in by a little thing called 'common-knowledge', but still companies like that make me want to be the next uni-bomber }:-@)
basixs said:
(... but still companies like that make me want to be the next uni-bomber }:-@)
Careful what you say Baxis! Or we'll have the feds looking over our shoulder! XD Maybe we can get them hooked on jME...
HTML is the most common text format, one doesn't have to be a genius to come up with the idea to store the in-game texts in HTML.
Some are just too greedy, want money without work invested, as usual.
thanx, nymon; I guess I went to far again
their site looks like its created by some 15 year old with some ugly models downloaded from the net in the previous millenium. as usual some idiot trying to make money off of hard working people. and they didnt even dare go up against blizzard instead…
i really like their “technical architecture” representation:
Who the hell granted those patents???
I seriously hope they lose and rot in hell 8)
You’re mistaken, it’s not a model at all, but a maze! 
XD XD XD XD :lol:
O darkfroggy, thanx for the laugh; better morning reading than the funnies 
Funny enough, I heard that in the same country where the company filled the complaint, some companies have also been successfully granted patents on genes and parts of the DNA, so who knows, they might win this copyright trial 
same shit!
HAHAHA good one
What I want to know is what’s with the penguins with them it looks “real legit”. At first glance I thought it was a Farside http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side
Stupid patents! I think that NCSoft is not so happy of that.
Does it mean that I cannot do a MMORPG without paying this stupid company that own such ridiculous patent?
It is clearly made to steal money from people that hard worked to make something.
Though, they should not be able to patent common user interface elements like windows, buttons and such things. If I remember well, Apple lost is legal fight against Microsoft about the same GUI elements and the Trash Can too, some years ago. So, this company should not be able to own UI elements.
3D is a dimensional thing that humans can experience every day of their lives, in real world. And, finally, chats exist from many years (I bet someone already own chats patent).
Then, what is that patent for? Is it a collage of patents? Then they do not own anything! … Puff
Ah…! And HTML is clearly an intellectual property of W3C. Moreover the specification is open source. So, how can they claim any rights on HTML?
If I do not mistake, Web was invented in Europe by a european scientist of CERN (and he still is chief of W3C). We have really different laws here in Europe about patents. And european people are really determined about this argument. So I would like to see this company to come here in Europe to say something to W3C!
What makes this really messed up is that this patent was not issues in the 80's (when there were some really stupid patents issued for such things as common algorithms); this patent was applied for in 1999 and was issued in 2004. Obviously the ones that issued this patent were very ignorant of the difficulties that arose from issuing those earlier patents…
i would really really like to hear what the ones that granted the patent has to say about it. they must be totally lost when it comes to technology. well, they must be totally lost in general…
MrCoder said:
well, they must be totally lost in general..
lol
Software patents is such a gray area I wouldn't be surprised…