PalTalk takes patent infringement suit on the road, sues MMO devs

Thats some serious bullshit. Patent trolls FTL.

Extra! Extra! PalTalk to sue everyone in the known universe, including itself!

Just sue Activi$ion. Anything to take money out Kotick's wallet makes me happy.

hahaha, Jagex? seriously? the makers of runescape? but why?!?! blizzard has 20x more cash...

I bought two pieces of bread and some turkey a few years ago, so I invented sandwiches. If you've ever eaten one, send me my money, please.

So they bought the Patents in 2002, so when were the Patents Filled? Because the first "users to see the same virtual space as they interact with one another in real time" was in Action Quake in 1998 and Ultima Online that same year.

I've noticed that everytime Pal Talk sues someone, they never actually filed the original patent. All they do is buy out the companies that have the patent, and shove it in other companies faces. Something seems fishy.

STFU and innovate some shit Paltalk. No one has heard of you, you have no fucking allies, and its shit companies like you that we, the consumer, end up paying for in higher prices. These companies may be power players and some even monopolies, but at least they fucking move this industry foward.

What the hell have you done with your company Paltalk president? Besides sit on a vaguly worded patent and sue other people out of their money which they earned.

Fuck you, and everything you stand for. If you work for this slimy company, fuck you too for supporting it.

Hmm, the existence of MUDs prior to the filing of this patent (and online multiplayer going back to Net Trek back when the internet was like ten bored scientists working on various government-funded projects) should blow the whole suit right out of the water.

Bobby Kotick is so going to rape these people.

They are obviously going to lose this battle. Network gaming, in real time, has been around since the mainframe.

So nethack bzflag, doom, decent, and other dos games arent prior art?
Vrml isint prior art?
I think I should get into the patent trolling business, apparently these companies would rather give them money to make them go away then get them to shut up.

btw shame on you microsoft. When Windows 95 was released Bill Gates mad much ado as to how there is a windows version of doom and how it uses directx and it could use the networking features and such. Apparently they forgot that too.

It's crap like this that illustrates what a mess the whole patent system is.

It's quite incredible how quickly some asshole can take something designed to protect us and turn it into something that screws us over for money.

Bought.

They can't even make their own patents, let along products.

I really hate saying this, but I cannot wait to see the response from Big Man Bobby "i reward profit not fun" K on this lawsuit.

"So Mr. Kotick, what do you think about Paltalk's claims against your company?"

"I think somebody needs to learn what happens when you fuck with my money. I'll eat your children and charge your micro payments to get the bits back and you wanna sue ME? We have lawyers that just made up some bull shit about copyright against those Glider bitches that a judge believed and Paltalk thinks this is gonna stick? Yeah, I can hardly sleep at night.

Oh yeah, buy Guitar Hero 5."

So, if true, it's taken PalTalk *9 years* to go after the MMO producers and developers? Seriously?

There should be a statute of limitations on this stuff - if, with the massive visibility of MMOs, you haven't filed your lawsuit to protect your patent within 'x' number of years, you should be barred from being able to file suit. Their failure to file suit for such a long period of time is tacit permission to use whatever technology is in place.

Fools.

Huh. Sony AKA Verant AKA Everquest was released back in 1999. Sorry Paltalk, you FAIL! Now if this is just for voice communications instead of using the keyboard, well frankly, you are trying to say that everything from MMOs to PS3 Home to casual online games (like virtual poker for example) is in violation??? I think not. You bought the patent, great, but a) you did nothing with it (cause no one ever heard of you until today), b) You waited until it was a viable business before saying anything hence everyone took the financial risks but you! You have no right to claim anything. You had your chance back when this first started and you did nothing.

Seriously, the patent laws in the US out of control. There needs to be tight new regulation regarding them. Everyone wants a piece of someone elses success because it midly looks similar to what you patented yet did nothing with the patent.

Not sure why Griffin McElroy chooses to word this as a legal victory and setting some sort of precedent. Considering a private settlement was reached, there is no "law" involved and it sets no precedent whatsoever. If anything it just means that Microsoft considered the cost of going to trial versus the cost of a settlement and chose the option that required the least amount of money.