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Upstart Sandbox.com is ready to defend itself against allegations that its fantasy sports business violates a patent owned by competitor Fantasy Sports Properties.
Fantasy Sports alleges, in a lawsuit filed Dec. 28, that Restonbased Sandbox isn't playing fair in cyberspace. Nor are Gannett, ESPN, Yahoo! and CBS Sportsline which, along with Sandbox, produce online fantasy football games and are named in the lawsuit.
Fantasy Sports, also based in Reston, claims these competitors have ignored its 1990 patent for providing a method and service of fantasy football games on computer.
At press time, an unnamed defendant in the suit had reached a settlement requiring it to pay Fantasy Sports 10 percent of revenue generated by its fantasy football game. The settlement may add weight to the plaintiff's argument.
But Sandbox, which answered the suit Jan. 18, considers the reach of Fantasy Sports' patent to