Jagex Wins $90m Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Paltalk

After a year of struggle and millions spent Jagex was able to defend itself against a ridiculous patent troll's (aka Paltalk) attack. It all started with Microsoft caving out and settling with Paltalk a year or so ago, thus consciously (which is likely) or unconsciously giving Paltalk ammunition to go against other gaming companies, Jagex included. You can read more about the beginning here.

Well, Jagex fought it out in the court and won. Yes, as strange as it sounds the common sense prevailed, yet, unfortunately, the win was very costly - and it's a shame. Still, I can only applaud to Jagex for standing up to the challenge. I wish there could be a way to sue the evil patent trolls back and get them out of business for good. That would be indeed a happy ending, don't you think?

P.S. I am still mostly in Mexico, still working hard and it looks like it's going to stay that way till at least the end of January... The only Runescape related activity I still regularly do is monitoring Runewise's forum at Sal's, so if you need to find me, the easiest way is to send me a PM there.

P.P.S. Speaking of Runewise's forum, if you wish to win a copy of "Betrayal at Falador" and don't mind helping Runewise, check out this announcement.

Paltalk sues Jagex

You might have already heard about this lawsuit. If not, full story is here (Paltalk sues a bunch of MMOG companies including Jagex for patent infringement). The patent in question is about distribution of messages within MMOGs. In this context we are not talking about clan chat or players text messages, but about ALL game messages (movements, actions etc.) between player computers, that is about the very core of MMOGs. Unfortunately, from what I can see the threat is very real and dangerous for Jagex (and subsequently to Runescape players). Yes, Paltalk is making an outrageous claim which is infuriating millions of people, but, they are not looking for respect - they are looking for money. And money they may get, just as they already got it from Microsoft in a very similar suit. On a brighter side I do hope that Jagex's motto of developing everything by themselves may help them this time (assuming their way of passing messages between player computers and servers has some unique distinction from the patent's core).

To finish it off, here is an official Jagex's statement about the matter from RSOF. So don't despair. Yet...

Hi Guys,
Just to bring you up to speed, whilst Paltalk is making as much PR capital as they can on this matter, Jagex have yet to be served with any court papers and I expect being a British company it will probably take a few months before that happens.

Jagex respect all 3rd party IP rights and prides itself on developing all of our own technology which has not only made us a leader in this space but also means we are confident having assessed their patents, that there is no merit to their claims and this is all simply the work of ambulance chasers trying to extort money from a successful games studio.

Naturally I can’t speak for Activision or Sony, but it goes without saying that we will vigorously defend ourselves against any claims and whilst it may take a number of months or possibly even years for Jagex to triumph, there is no doubt we will triumph. The accusations will not affect Jagex’s operation in any way nor stop us continuing to create the world’s best online games.

Cheers,
Mark Gerhard