Fox’s fantasy sports game subject of patent claim
A virtual games company has sued three fantasy sports games accusing them of patent infringement.
Virtual Gaming Technologies filed its claim at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Monday, November 2, alleging infringement of two patents.
The company, established by William Junkin, sued Fox Sports alongside other companies FanDuel and DraftKings, in three separate complaints.
The disputed patents, US numbers 5,860,862 and 6,193,610, cover online interactive systems. Junkin applied for the patents in 1996 and 1997 respectively.
Fox’s fantasy sports service enables users to select a team of National Football League (NFL) players under a set budget. Players are attributed a monetary value and are awarded points on how well they perform for their respective NFL team.
Users compete in a league against each other and the winner is the person who has selected the players that accumulate the most points.
The fantasy sports industry is estimated to be worth $27 billion, according to the complaint.
“Fox Sports intended to induce patent infringement by third-party customers and users of the Fox Sports Products and had knowledge that the inducing acts would cause infringement or was wilfully blind to the possibility that its inducing acts would cause infringement,” the complaint said.
The same allegation was levied at FanDuel and DraftKings, both of which offer a similar service.
It has been a difficult week for FanDuel in particular after a separate lawsuit was filed by NFL player Pierre Garçon alleging that the game had infringed his, and other players’, image rights.
Garçon, who plays for the Washington Redskins, is seeking class certification for the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes i n the same week that the Texas court has come under spotlight after it was signalled out by rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The EFF asked the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to end the phenomenon of “ forum selling”, whereby patent owners can choose the district court they wish to sue in, and “shut down” the Texas court, which has become a popular venue for non-practising entities to litigate in.
