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In their own words: Jim Crowley, CEO, Turbine Inc.
Turbine Inc., the Westwood video game developer often cited as one of the leaders in Massachusetts’ growing game sector, is now named as a defendant in a patent lawsuit filed by a New York instant messaging software company.
Jericho, N.Y.-based Paltalk Holdings Inc. has had apparent success in the past defending the patents in question, which cover how servers handle real-time messages between players during game play. In June, the company announced a settlement with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), in which the software giant agreed to pay PalTalk a licensing fee for use of the technology in Xbox versions of the game Halo. In its lawsuit filed Monday, PalTalk alleges Turbine infringed the patents in Lord of the Rings Online, a massively multiplayer online game released in 2007, claiming damages to PalTalk in “at least the tens of millions of dollars.”
PalTalk makes an online chat room, instant messaging and video chat software.
Turbine was among a list of defendants that included Sony Corp., Blizzard Entertainment Inc., NCSoft Corp. and Jagex Ltd. The suit was filed in East Texas district court, known as a ‘rocket docket,’ friendly to intellectual property actions.
PalTalk bought the patents in question in 2002, in an asset acquisition of HearMe Inc., after it folded in 2001. HearMe, formerly known as Mpath Interactive Inc., was a California-based maker of voice-over-Internet software.
The PalTalk complaint summarizes two former HearMe patents: one, filed in 1998, covers a group messaging server that organizes group lists of players. The second patent covers software that aggregates messages from members of a group to more efficiently maintain consistent communication between host computers, according to the complaint.
A Turbine spokesman declined to comment, citing company policy against talking publicly about ongoing litigation.
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