BOSTON, Jan. 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Worlds Inc. (OTCQB:WDDD) announced that on January 22, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit scheduled the oral argument for Worlds’ appeal of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Patent Trial & Appeal Board (USPTO PTAB) Inter Partes Review (IPR) decisions that issued in November and December, 2016. The oral argument will take place before a currently unnamed panel of three judges of the Federal Circuit on March 9, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.
“We are looking forward to presenting oral arguments in our IPR appeal, particularly now that the Federal Circuit will review whether Bungie’s IPRs against Worlds were time-barred according to its recent en banc ruling, Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp., of January 8th, 2018,” stated Thom Kidrin, CEO of Worlds Inc. “The Wi-Fi One v. Broadcom appeal before all sitting judges of the Federal Circuit confirmed that patent owners could argue on appeal that an IPR petition was filed too late under the law and therefore had to be vacated. Prior to this ruling, the Federal Circuit would not consider these arguments on appeal. Now, we believe that the Federal Circuit will carefully evaluate whether Bungie acted as a proxy for Activision/Blizzard in filing the IPRs against Worlds, and also whether the IPRs are therefore time-barred because Activision/Blizzard had already been in litigation with Worlds for many years when Bungie filed the IPRs.”
The previous validation of six claims by the PTAB enables Worlds to resume its ongoing patent litigation against Activision/Blizzard et al. However, Worlds believes that any reversal of invalidity rulings by the Federal Circuit will strengthen its case against Activision/Blizzard when the case resumes. Therefore, Worlds has continued the stay of its Activision/Blizzard et al. litigation pending the final outcome of the Inter Partes Review (IPR) appeal process.
Worlds will be represented before the Federal Circuit by Wayne M. Helge of Davidson, Berquist, Jackson & Gowdey, LLP who handled the IPRs before the PTAB and in the federal district court litigation by Susman Godfrey L.L.P.
More information on the lawsuit and Worlds’ patents can be found on the Worlds.com website.
About Worlds Inc.:
Worlds Inc. 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. Visit www.Worlds.com.
About Davidson, Berquist, Jackson & Gowdey, LLP
DBJ+G ranked as one of the top 15 law firms or corporate legal departments measured by the number of representations in IPR, Covered Business Method, and Post-Grant Review proceedings before PTAB in 2015. Docket Navigator's 2015 Year in Review identified DBJ+G’s Wayne Helge as a top 10 attorney in the PTAB.
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.
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