Activision Blizzard used patents registered by another company for World of Warcraft, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3.

There are severe consequences if patents are used without the owner’s consent. They are not only filed to protect a technology or idea. Sometimes, it is also to prevent others from copying them and thus lose the possibility of using them in the future or not using them. In this case, the legal battle between Acceleration Bay and Activision Blizzard was over the former.

The creators of Call of Duty acquired and used certain patents of the San Francisco-based company in the field of network and data support, and now they are paying for them.

The debate actually started no less than nine years ago. In 2015, Acceleration Bay, an American technology company engaged in research, support and investment in projects, filed a lawsuit in US District Court after discovering how Activision had obtained certain patents related to network and data transmission of online services. In this case, with the goal of using them in their own multiplayer game.

The company cited two games that used such a patent. These are World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, at least the licensed shooter games released in 2014 and 2015 (Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3). A violation of the law, behind which there is a large-scale investigation of almost a decade. All of this led to two key questions the prosecutor asked the jury. One of the latter is picked up by GamesIndustry:

“Acceleration Bay has demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that the Activision products identified below infringe one or more claims of the patents referenced below.”

The jury ruled, but Activision is appealing

After that, the verdict is final: according to the American jury, Activision has indeed violated American copyright law, and the company must pay $18 million for World of Warcraft and $5.4 million for the two CoD games. “Acceleration Bay should receive reasonable compensation for Activision’s infringement,” the lawyer representing the prosecution is quoted as saying.

For its part, Activision Blizzard is actively defending itself. He claims none of his teams have acquired these patents and will appeal to higher courts. “Although we are disappointed, we believe that there is a strong basis for the appeal. We have never used the patented technologies advocated by the said company in our games,” said a representative of the conglomerate.

Source: Law.com, GamesIndustry.biz