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[Topher]

Activision Blizzard has been found guilty of patent infringement, and must pay Acceleration Bay $23.4 million. The ruling came down from a jury on May 3 after a nine year legal battle.

According to the verdict, Activision infringed on two Acceleration Bay patents that related to networking and broadcasting technology. These technologies were then used in various Activision games’ multiplayer.

The jury came back with a ruling that Activision was liable for $18M for infringement within World of Warcraft and $5.4M for infringement in two Call of Duty titles.

When deciding on a verdict and amount, the jury was asked two questions. The first question was whether Acceleration Bay proved “by as preponderance of the evidence” that Activision infringed on the patents. The second was to determine a monetary amount that would “fairly and reasonably compensate Acceleration Bay”.

In addition to its lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, Acceleration Bay has similar patent infringement cases going against Take-Two and EA.

Insider Gaming has reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment on the verdict. As of publishing, no response has been received.

Activision Has To Pay $23.4M For Patent Infringement

A jury has ruled Activision liable for patent infringement, ordering the publisher to pay $23.4 million in damages.

insider-gaming.com

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Is this Bad Microsoft News Day or something?

 

[Draugoth]

This is probably before the merger

 

[Bernoulli]

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Is this Bad Xbox News Day or something?

 

[graywolf323]

is this a patent troll or did they really have a case?

 

[Soodanim]

is this a patent troll or did they really have a case?

Looks like a patent troll to me.

Acceleration Bay | LinkedIn

Acceleration Bay | 46 followers on LinkedIn. Acceleration Bay is an incubator and investor, based in Silicon Valley, California. The company partners together with inventors, corporations and entrepreneurs to accelerate ventures through our innovation and acceleration approach. The key to...

www.linkedin.com

About us​

Acceleration Bay is an incubator and investor, based in Silicon Valley, California. The company partners together with inventors, corporations and entrepreneurs to accelerate ventures through our innovation and acceleration approach. The key to each Acceleration Bay venture is the stability of Intellectual Property protection.

Website http://AccelerationBay.com
Industry Executive Offices
Company size 2-10 employees
Headquarters Redwood Shores, CA
Type Privately Held
Founded 2012

 

[LordCBH]

Looks like a patent troll to me.

Acceleration Bay | LinkedIn

Acceleration Bay | 46 followers on LinkedIn. Acceleration Bay is an incubator and investor, based in Silicon Valley, California. The company partners together with inventors, corporations and entrepreneurs to accelerate ventures through our innovation and acceleration approach. The key to...

www.linkedin.com

About us​

Acceleration Bay is an incubator and investor, based in Silicon Valley, California. The company partners together with inventors, corporations and entrepreneurs to accelerate ventures through our innovation and acceleration approach. The key to each Acceleration Bay venture is the stability of Intellectual Property protection.

Website http://AccelerationBay.com
Industry Executive Offices
Company size 2-10 employees
Headquarters Redwood Shores, CA
Type Privately Held
Founded 2012

God I hate patent trolls so much. Shouldn’t be a thing. If they aren’t doing anything with it then they should lose it.

 

[bender]

Is this Bad Microsoft News Day or something?

23.4M?

 

[StueyDuck]

MS paid 70bil for this.... 20mil is a drop in the bucket for them.

I'd imagine they knew about this potential ruling prior to purchase, or at least accounted for it

 

[Oddvintagechap]

This is probably before the merger

all you had to do is read the second sentence.

 

[acm2000]

Yay for patent trolls

 

[Sleepwalker]

Phil the past 24 hrs:

 

[Mr Moose]

9 years and the bad guys won?

 

[buenoblue]

Fucking Phil Spencer

 

[crackajack]

If they aren’t doing anything with it then they should lose it.

Inventing something should not require you to build the whole product around it too. I would assume much of the "patent trolling" narrative is driven by the actual big trolls that sit in the big corporations not wanting smaller players to interfere with their games. As a small invetor you might have invented something truly great but practically anything needs a bunch of other inventions to form a product were it would improve it. So unless the asking price is just way too much, protecting the smaller trolls, incapable of launching their own products, from the big trolls, that have established themselves as the very few makers of stuff, is imho just fair and absolutely right.