Activision Blizzard today announced the US District Court, Central District of California has decided to dismiss the case filed by production and effects company McRO, Inc. d.b.a. Planet Blue dealing with automatic animation of lip synchronization and facial expressions for 3D characters. The court decided to invalidate all patent claims and dismissed the case against Activision Blizzard because patents 6,307,576 and 6,611,278 were abstract ideas, and as such, abstract ideas cannot be patentable. The game developer company also stated both patents “lacked any inventive concept, and therefore the claims would inhibit rather than promote the progress of the useful arts.”
According to Chris Walther, Chief Legal Officer of Activision Blizzard: “Meritless patent cases such as this stifle innovation and the creative process across the industry. We will aggressively defend our investments in the innovative franchises at Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment, as we did in this case with Call of Duty®, Skylanders® and StarCraft® II, from entities whose sole purpose is to use patent litigation to hold innovative companies captive for monetary gain.”
[Source]: Activision Blizzard: Patent Claims Against Activision Blizzard’s Use of Lip Synchronization and Facial Expression Technology in Call of Duty®, Skylanders® and StarCraft® II Are Dismissed [https://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=873188].