Activision Blizzard has lost a legal battle that has plagued them since 2015. Tech incubator Acceleration Bay convinced a US jury that the gaming studio violated two of the company’s patents. It’s about World of Warcraft (WoW) and Call of Duty (CoD): Black Ops II, as well as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
What kind of patent is it? The company Acceleration Bay filed an appeal against Activision Blizzard in 2015: Acceleration Bay had acquired two patents from Boeing. It’s about communication technology that allows you to share information between computers at the same time. So about patents for network and transmission technology.
Activision Blizzard is said to have violated copyright when they used the patented technique in 3 of their games.
Therefore, the plaintiffs demanded “appropriate compensation for Activision Blizzard’s infringement of the patents.”
That was Activision Blizzard’s position: They said that their technology worked differently than the plaintiff’s patents and therefore would not infringe the plaintiff company’s copyright.
In addition, the damage should be limited to a maximum of $300,000.
WoW is still a relevant game in 2024, the lawsuit comes from 2015:
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This is what the jury decided: The jury decided on Friday in favor of the plaintiff:
Activision Blizzard wants to file an appeal
This is what Activision Blizzard says: The statement comes from them: Although they are disappointed, they believe they have a good basis for an appointment. They never used patented technology in their own games.
This is what the plaintiffs say: In their statement, they said they were “delighted” about the decision.
The lawyer added that the team was excited to finally be in court after 9 years.
As Gamesindustry.biz reports, Activision Blizzard is not the only company currently suing Acceleration Bay. They still have pending lawsuits against EA, Take-Two and the Amazon Web Service. All the cases were opened in the last 5 years.
Activision Blizzard had a rough patch in 2021 with some court appearances. At that time, allegations arose against the company that there was a climate of sexism there and that women were systematically treated worse than their male colleagues: “Cocaine in the toilet, sex in the lounge” – the scandal surrounding WoW developer Blizzard escalated