Asked in Patents (Intellectual Property)

Q: I need to verify if it is real that WORLDS, INC owns the patents it says:

Worlds Inc. (OTC QB:WDDD) is a leading intellectual property developer related to 3D online virtual worlds. The Company has a portfolio of 9 US patents (6,219,045; 7,181,690; 7,493,558; 7,945,856; 8,082,501; 8,145,998; 8,161,385 8,407,592& 8,640,028) for multi-server technology for 3D applications

3 Lawyer Answers

A: Search the USPTO assignment database for recorded assignments. Go to PAIR and review the file wrapper, e.g., Applicant listed on ADS and Filling Receipt. These are a couple of good starting points.

A: A quick way to check the USPTO assignment database is to check at the URL:

https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html#/patent/search .

Here you enter in the name of the owner (Worlds, Inc) as the "Assignee name." When you do this, the system lists various companies that contain these words. On the second page of the listing, the patents assigned to Worlds Inc. show up.

https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html#/patent/search/result?id=Worlds,%20Inc.&type=patAssigneeName&searchPage=2&totalItemsPerPage=25

Peter D. Mlynek agrees with this answer

Kevin E. Flynn
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  • Pittsboro, NC
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A: Short answer is No as at least one of these patents has expired. (one can own an expired patent and continue to seek recovery for infringement that happened before the patent expired -- but for all practical purposes, it is no longer a threat to new actions.)

You should look at Google Patents or USPTO Public PAIR to see which of these patents are still in force. Patents have a limited life. Even if all maintenance fee payments are paid (and they are not always paid) the life of a patent ends about 20 years after the first non-provisional patent application in the family.

If you look at https://patents.google.com/patent/US6219045B1/en?oq=6%2c219%2c045;+ you will see that this patent expired in 2016. I have not stepped through the other patents but you can do that.

Peter D. Mlynek agrees with this answer

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