Planetwide Playing on Bigger Stage Thanks to Deal With Geographic

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Video game and software developer Planetwide Games Inc. has teamed up with the National Geographic Society to launch its Comic Book Creator software with National Geographic content. The small Aliso Viejo studio has about 25 employees working on its Web-based multiplayer games, as well as animation and comic book software.


The licensing venture with National Geographic could vault the company into a new realm. Planetwide’s comic book creator will be promoted to the 330 million people worldwide who receive National Geographic’s magazines, read the Web site or participate in school-based educational programs. It’s a vast audience for a company that cleared just over $50 million in revenues last year.


“For families, National Geographic is the gold standard brand,” said Planetwide President Kevin Donovan, an avid magazine reader with a National Geographic collection stretching back to 1925. Donovan has been a member of the society for 28 years. “I knew if there was a way that I could personally contribute to that brand and blend it in to my business, that would be a good thing,” he said.


Planetwide is best-known for its “RYL Path of the Emperor” online game, and its original “Comic Book Creator” software, which allows users to make frame-by-frame comic books, using images and animation, and self-publish or share them. The “National Geographic Comic Book Creator” will give users access to National Geographic Society’s library of graphic images, maps, photos and digital renderings think sea monsters in creating their own storylines and adventures.


The financial details are still being worked out, but Donovan said it is a multiyear licensing agreement and will involve online collaborations with National Geographic programs and content, as well as integration into National Geographic’s educational curriculum.


Planetwide Games is in the midst of becoming a public company. Donovan expects the new Planetwide Games Corp. to trade on the Nasdaq exchange under a ticker symbol to be unveiled in April.



Questioning the Fax


E-mail fax service j2 Global Communications Inc. has hit a detour in its aggressive pursuit of patent-infringers. The L.A.-based company has filed several patent-infringement lawsuits over the past year, including recent filings against Venali Inc. and Protus IP Solutions. Charges range from patent infringement to junk-fax abuse, the faxing world’s version of spam.


But Venali fought back through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It petitioned the patent office to re-examine some of j2 Global’s patents, and the office agreed to review its decisions on three of those patents.


Because of the review, j2 Global’s lawsuits have been put on hold by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, pending the outcome of the reviews.


“It is a typical defense tactic in patent litigation,” said Jeff Adelman, vice president and general counsel for j2 Global, “used in order to delay the proceedings.”


J2 Global remains unfazed because 80 percent of patent-re-examination proceedings fail to overturn the patent, Adelman said. “We continue to believe in the validity of our patents and look forward to receiving confirmation of this from the Patent and Trademark Office,” he added. But Venali is claiming victory in stalling the lawsuits, issuing a statement that it will continue to fight against what it calls “anticompetitive practices” by j2 Global.



*Staff reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226, or at

[email protected]

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