New York-based cyberchat company Paltalk has filed suit against software titan Microsoft in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that Microsoft’s Xbox Live in-game chat features infringe on two Paltalk patents regarding group messaging systems. Paltalk seeks an injunction prohibiting Microsoft’s continued infringement, as well as damages, which the company wants tripled due to Microsoft’s "willful" infringement of the patents.
It’s not clear at this point why Paltalk has chosen this particular moment to take on one of the most highly-paid and well-funded corporate legal departments in the world, but it’s appropriate for us to note that Xbox Live debuted in late 2002 and has been running ever since; nearly four years would seem to be more than enough time for a patent holder to get around to making an infringement argument, especially given the highly visible and promoted nature of the Xbox Live service. But Paltalk’s choice of venue is clearly motivated: many east Texas jurisdictions are becoming notorious for upholding the rights of patent-holders, even when the patents themselves are rather dodgy.
Paltalk’s patents—5,822,523 and 6,226,686—were filed in 1996 and 1999 (granted in 1998 and 2001 respectively), and cover aspects of real-time group messaging. At first glance, there would seem to be plenty of prior art covering interactive chat and communication within game environments before 1996, but those matters are probably best left to experts. It’s not known at this time whether Paltalk plans to pursue similar litigation against AOL, Blizzard Entertainment, Yahoo, and other companies which offer in-game group chat features…maybe Paltalk thinks it’s enough to take a stick to one giant beehive of patent attorneys at a time.
