The Internet is so central to the way modern life works that it's easy to forget how much of the technology that went into building the World Wide Web is protected by patents. And some of those patents still apply today. Zynga may be learning that the hard way, as a court ruled last week that the gaming company infringed on IBM's patents that date back to the pre-Internet telecommunications platform. from the 1980s. As a result, Zynga could face damages of $44.9 million. IBM's 1993 patent “Method for presenting advertising on an interactive service” accounts for $40 million of the recommended award.
For anyone still playing Zynga's once-ubiquitous games, this decision shouldn't disrupt their gaming time, the company said in a statement. that it would not have to modify or terminate the operation of its games as a result of the court decision. Interestingly, not all of the games in Zynga's catalog were be infringing patents. For example, Crosswords with friends He was considered a criminal, but none of the Words with friends The titles were… A Take-Two representative said… tech-policy/2024/09/zynga-must-pay-ibm-45-million-for-farmville-patent-infringement/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:Ars Technica;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> that the company would appeal the ruling.
IBM has an obligation to collect intellectual property rights. Zynga, which was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in 2022, is not its first target for potentially infringing these Prodigy patents, and it likely won't be the last. The computing company has had many online businesses in its sights over the years, from long-standing giants (such as amazon;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:7;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> and twitter-strikes-patent-deal-with-ibm” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:x;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:8;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>formerly twitter) to flashes in the pan (such as ). But some defendants, such as the pet retail platform have successfully avoided legal charges from IBM.
