Priceline Creator Sues Activision And Zynga, Claims Infringement Of Online Tournament Technology

Priceline.com creator Walker Digital has filed a patent-infringement complaint against Activision and Zynga in the United States District Court of Delaware, claiming Activision Blizzard and Zynga are illegally using technology related to online gaming tournaments.

The patent in question, titled “Database driven online distributed tournament system,” was granted to Walker Digital in July 2002.

It describes “a product and method of distributed electronic tournaments for a plurality of players that exchanges information with a central controller to influence game play while a player plays in the tournament and stores player information to influence game play in a subsequent tournament.”

According to the suit, 13 of Activision Blizzard’s recent titles are infringing upon the patent.

Included among the alleged infringers are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, Blur, Transformers: War for Cybertron, DJ Hero 2, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone.

The suit also targets Blizzard Entertainment’s money-minting massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, as well as its three expansions.

While their own money-minting blockbuster FarmVille is safe from the proceedings, the casual game company Zynga’s Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, Fashion Wars, Pirates, Special Forces, and Street Racing are still allegedly violating Walker Digital’s patent with these six titles.

Walker Digital is now seeking damages from the two companies “that cannot presently be quantified but will be ascertained through discovery or at trial.”

Via Gamespot