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U.S. District Court Judge Issues Schedule for Worlds Inc.'s Patent Infringement Claims to Proceed Against Activision Entities

Monday, 20 April 2020 08:30 AM

BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / April 20, 2020 / Worlds, Inc. (OTCQB:WDDD) ("Worlds" or the "Company"), a leading intellectual property developer and licensee of patents related to 3D online virtual worlds, today announced that on April 17, 2020, Judge Denise J. Casper, sitting on the bench in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, issued a pre-trial schedule in Worlds Inc.'s case for patent infringement against Defendants Activision Blizzard, Inc., Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., and Activision Publishing, Inc. (collectively, "Activision").

Worlds first filed its complaint for patent infringement against Activision on March 30, 2012, and eventually accused Activision of infringing five of Worlds' patents. On September 16, 2015, Judge Casper scheduled an Initial Pretrial Conference to occur on September 29, 2016. However, this date was set aside and Worlds' case against Activision was suspended after Bungie Inc. petitioned the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office's Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) to conduct inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, to re-evaluate the validity of Worlds' five asserted patents.

Two of Worlds' patents emerged from IPR in late 2016 with claims intact, and Worlds appealed the PTAB's decisions on the three remaining patents to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in early 2017. In September 2018, the Federal Circuit vacated, or canceled, those PTAB decisions and remanded the cases back to the PTAB for additional consideration. On January 14, 2020, the PTAB issued a Notice that it has dismissed the three remanded Petitions for IPR, filed by Bungie, against Worlds' patents.

With Bungie's IPRs concluded, Worlds asked Judge Casper to schedule a status conference in preparation for lifting the suspension of Worlds' patent infringement allegations against Activision. That conference was held via videoconference on April 16, 2020, and one day later, Judge Casper issued the court schedule for Worlds' allegations to proceed against Activision:

In light of the parties' joint status report and yesterday's status conference regarding same and in consideration of the parties' various arguments, the Court ORDERS as follows:

  • Fact discovery resumes April 21, 2020. Date by which counsel to meet/confer regarding estoppel issue May 5, 2020. Worlds' narrowed election of asserted claims May 5, 2020. Activision's 35 U.S.C. 101 motion due May 19, 2020. Worlds' opposition to the 35 U.S.C. 101 motion due June 9, 2020. Activision's 35 U.S.C. 101 reply brief due June 23, 2020. Hearing on Activision's 35 U.S.C. 101 motion July 22, 2020 at 3:00 p.m.
  • Close of Fact Discovery January 14, 2021. Worlds' Narrowing of Asserted Claims (No more than 3 claims per patent; 15 claims maximum) January 21, 2021. Activision's Narrowing of Prior Art (No more than 7 prior art references per patent; 20 references total) February 4, 2021.
  • Status conference February 8, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. Opening expert reports February 18, 2021. Rebuttal expert reports March 25, 2021. Close of Expert Discovery April 15, 2021.
  • Dispositive motions (can address estoppel issue If still disputed)/Daubert motions due May 13, 2021. Opposition to Dispositive motions/Daubert motions due June 10, 2021. Reply briefs in support of Dispositive motions/Daubert motions due June 24, 2021. Hearing on dispositive motions/Daubert hearing TBD. Final Election deadlines and FPTC TBD.
  • As to briefing for various motions noted above, the page limitation for opening briefs and opposition (except for Daubert motions) shall be 20 pages and reply briefs shall be 10 pages. As to Daubert motions, the page limitation for opening briefs and opposition shall be 10 pages and reply briefs shall be 5 pages. Given that there will be oral argument, the Court does not anticipate allowing surreply briefs. (Hourihan, Lisa)

Worlds is represented in its District Court litigation against Activision by Davidson Berquist Jackson & Gowdey, LLP, the firm that represented Worlds in its IPRs before the PTAB and its appeals to the Federal Circuit, and Susman Godfrey LLP.

Worlds, Inc.

Worlds, Inc. (OTCQB: WDDD), is a leading intellectual property developer and licensee of patents related to 3D online virtual worlds. The Company has a portfolio of 10 US patents for multi-server technology for 3D applications. The earliest of these patents issued on an application filed November 12, 1996. A provisional patent application, serial number 60/020,296, was filed on November 13, 1995. These patents are related to each other and disclose and claim systems and methods for enabling users to interact in a virtual space.

For additional information about Worlds, Inc., please visit: www.Worlds.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements and information relating to Worlds Inc. that are based on the beliefs of Worlds' management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events including estimates and projections about its business based on certain assumptions of its management, including those described in this Release. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Additional risk factors are included in the Company's public filings with the SEC. Should one or more of these underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as "hoped," "anticipated," "believed," "estimated," "should," "preparing," "expected" or words of a similar nature. The Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Accentuate PR
Julie Shepherd
847-275-3643
[email protected]

Corporate
617-725-8900
[email protected]

SOURCE: Worlds Inc.

Topic:
Company Update
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