After almost a year and a half, World.com Inc. of Brookline, Mass., and NCSoft Corp. of South Korea have finally settled their patent infringement lawsuit, but terms of the settlement remain confidential.

On Christmas eve of 2008, Worlds.com filed suit against NCSoft for infringement of patent 7,181,690 – “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space.” The case was filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division because NC Soft Corp. has a U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas.

In the suit, Worlds.com alleged that NCSoft illegally incorporated a patented product into its Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG), including City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dungeon Runners, Exteel, Guild Wards, Lineage, Linege II and Talula Rasa, among others. The product in question deals with creating realistic scalable presentations of 3D virtual worlds, and allowing players to interact in those worlds.

To fight the suit, World.com pursued a strategy of retaining an intellectual property firm to license out and enforce its technology.

Though the details of the settlement remain confidential, the Web site Patent Arcade (www.patentarcade.com) announced that the court ordered dismissal with prejudice due to a binding settlement between the two companies signed on April 23, 2010.

Virtual Worlds News speculated  that Worlds.com may have decided to settle the suit in order to get a needed infusion of funds, or at least, avoid the cost of litigation. An SEC filing of April 15, 2010 found that the company had only one full-time employee, few new projects and no cash or cash equivalents. It ultimately realized a loss of $727, 019 for the year ending Dec. 31, 2009.

SOURCE:

Virtual World News: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2010/04/worldscom-settles-ncsoft-suit-short-on-funds.html

Worlds.com Inc. v. NCSoft. Corp. Civil Action No. 6:08-cv-508 (E.D., Texas, Dec. 25, 2008) (Jury Demand)