U.S. Court of Appeals Hears Worlds’ Oral Argument on Validity of Patents for 3D Virtual Worlds and Related Network Architecture

Boston, MA, March 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Chief Judge and two other Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments on March 8, 2022 in the appeal filed by Worlds Inc. (OTC-BB:WDDD). Worlds has asked this Court to reverse an adverse District Court judgment from April 30, 2021 that favored defendants Activision Blizzard Inc., Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., and Activision Publishing, Inc. Worlds has been in litigation with the Activision defendants since 2012, with Worlds asserting that the Activision defendants infringed Worlds’ patents directed to three-dimensional (3-D) virtual world technology and network architecture. This litigation was stayed in 2015, while Worlds defended its patents against six validity challenges brought before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Worlds’ patents all survived these challenges. In 2020, the litigation stay was lifted, and the parties progressed through extensive discovery until the District Court ruled that Worlds’ patents were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as directed to patent-ineligible subject matter. Worlds appealed.