Polygon.com / 25.04.25

Ariana Grande and Travis Scott's Fortnite avatars to appear before jury for patent lawsuit

Epic Games has been fighting a crypto and metaverse company called Utherverse over patent infringement since 2021. Utherverse filed a lawsuit in June 2021 saying that Epic Games infringed on several of its patents related to people hanging out in big, virtual worlds with its Fortnite concert series specifically, Ariana Grande and Travis Scotts respective in-game performances. In January 2022, Epic Games filed a counterclaim wherein it says it has not only not infringed on Utherverses patents, but that several patents are invalid. Now, the two sides are headed for a jury trial set to begin on May 12, and the Grande and Scott digital performances are at the heart of it all. The two parties have been going back and forth in legal filings and meetings for years, narrowing the lawsuit down to one patent that describes technology used in playing back an experience in a virtual worlds system, per the original complaint. This could include letting people replay something that happened in a vir...
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