‘Call of Duty’ owner hit with $23.4m damages over networking tech
Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard ordered to pay damages to tech incubator | Activision infringed patents related to tech used in its blockbuster games World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, jury concludes.
Activision Blizzard, the gaming and entertainment giant owned by Microsoft, has been ordered to pay $23.4 million to a ‘technology incubator-investor’ for infringing technology patents related to two blockbuster video games.
In a verdict delivered yesterday, May 6, a Delaware jury found after a one-week trial that two patents belonging to Silicon Valley’s Acceleration Bay infringe online multiplayer networking technology behind World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.
The damages were split between the two games, with $18 million for World of Warcraft’s infringement of US patent 6,701,344; and $5.4 million for infringement by two iterations of Call of Duty of US patent 6,732,147 (Call of Duty: Black Ops III, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare).
Acceleration Bay sued Activision in 2015 over patents related to advanced networking and broadcasting technology, which it said enabled key multiplayer functionality in Activision’s Call of Duty and World of Warcraft games.
In-game net bookings for Call of Duty on console and personal computers jumped by 60% jump during Q1, 2024, according to an announcement by Activision Blizzard on May 4.
A spokesperson from Kramer Levin, which represented Acceleration Bay, said the team was “thrilled to get this case to trial after nine years, and it was gratifying for Acceleration Bay to finally have had its day in court.”
There are nine related cases to this latest dispute, mostly involving litigation between Acceleration Bay and Santa Monica-based Activision, along with Electronic Arts, Take Two Interactive Software, 2K Sports, and Rockstar Games.
In a separate action brought in February, Activision Blizzard faces allegations by OpTic Gaming and a professional gamer on YouTube of using the IP associated with Call of Duty to gain an “unlawful” market monopoly, and force other market participants into unfavourable conditions.
The verdict of the latest dispute, delivered in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, was presided over by Federal Circuit Judge William Bryson.
The team at Kramer Levin representing Acceleration Bay comprised Paul Andre, Lisa Kobialka, James Hannah and Aaron Frankel.
Representing Activision was a team from Shook Hardy & Bacon, comprising Trent Webb, Aaron Hankel, John Garretson, Jordan Bergsten and Lauren Douville.
