Activision Blizzard Incorporation has announced that the United States District Court, Central District of California has invalidated all patent claims filed against the Company by McRO Inc. which does business as Planet Blue has sued long list of game dev’s earlier last year. The Court concluded that two patents for automatically animating lip synchronization and facial expressions of 3D characters were invalid, and as a result, the case against Activision Blizzard has been dismissed.
Official Words
“Meritless patent cases such as this stifle innovation and the creative process across the industry,” said Chris Walther, Chief Legal Officer of Activision Blizzard. “We will aggressively defend our investments in the innovative franchises at Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment, as we did in this case with Call of Duty, Skylanders and StarCraft II, from entities whose sole purpose is to use patent litigation to hold innovative companies captive for monetary gain.”
Conclusion
On September 24th of 2014, the District Court agreed, finding that the patents lacked any inventive concept, and therefore the claims would inhibit rather than promote the progress of the useful arts. The Court’s decision to invalidate the patents follows precedent set by The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Alice Corporation, confirming that abstract ideas are not patentable.
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