Texas-based ‘Uniloc’ suing Mojang over Android version of ‘Mindcraft’
By Tim Colwill on July 22, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Yes, complete with spelling mistake and all. The Texas-based company Uniloc are taking Mojang to court over a software patent infringement – specifically, that the Android version of ‘Mindcraft’ infringes on claim 107 of patent #6,857,067.
That claim is for a “system and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data [covering] executable computer code on an electronic device to prevent unauthorized access to electronic data stored on the electronic device” which is, as you might appreciate, pretty vague.
The company is also suing Halfbrick, Gameloft, Square Enix and EA, and in the past has sued Activision, Sony, and Microsoft, among others, for various similarly-vague-sounding patent infringements. Notch has described software patents as “plain evil” and promised to “throw piles of money” at the suit to “make sure they don’t get a cent”.
Source: Joystiq
Australian Hardcore SMP Minecraft server kicks off tonight on games.on.net
Our adopt-a-server program hits the big time!
Oculus Rift support unofficially modded into Minecraft
Our forum user Mekon warns you not to blow chunks.
We’ve relaunched our Minecraft PVP server: get all the details here
Let the bloodletting begin.
You can use the following bbCode
[i], [b], [img], [quote], [url href="http://www.google.com/"]Google[/url]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
facebook
twitter
google+
rss
Uniloc is a DRM company. Their DRM solution has been most recently used (as far as I know) on Alpha Protocol.
These constant patent attacks on each other are destroying the technology industry and can only be bad for the consumer.
I must be the only one who wants to see DRM destroyed by patent battles then.
This isn’t a DRM company suing another DRM company, this company would be costing over half a dozen game developers money in legal costs.
That cannot be a good thing for the industry.
They’re probably suing for use of DRM that isn’t theirs. We’re not just talking small time indie devs here. This is also being pinged against the likes of EA and Activision (with similar suits laid against Sony and MS). I also wouldn’t be surprised if Apple has been hit with a similar lawsuit (if they haven’t been sued by Uniloc already).
Sounds almost like one of those companies that seems to exist for no other reason then to sue companies for ‘infringing patents’
My opinion is that all “patent trolls” contract a flesh eating based STD.
Well said libbaz, well said. Apple are somewhat guilty of this, however they also do have a number of products which I do enjoy using. *Sent from my Macbook Pro*
Might as well allow a patent for a system and method for turning off and on a computer or electronic device, then sue everyone. The problem is that his patent was granted in the first place.
Notch has put his thoughts on patents onto his blog (http://notch.tumblr.com/) and I completely with his statement
“A common argument for patents is that inventors won’t invent unless they can protect their ideas. The problem with this argument is that patents apply even if the infringer came up with the idea independently. If the idea is that easy to think of, why do we need to reward the person who happened to be first?”
This always drove me nuts, Amazon’s patent on one-click ecommerce…thousands of people thought of it, Amazon just managed to get the patent…
…And Amazon themselves only applied for the patent to protect itself against potential patent suits from other future patent trolls.
Pretty much most of these companies are applying for patents as a defensive move. It’s gotten ridiculous. :P
Uniloc was founded by an Australian – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_Richardson (aka The man in the van).
A DRM scheme that was developed in Australia?
I watched a Doco on this guy and felt sorry for him, he went to Microsoft to sell the technology and they said no, and then the next thing you know their using it.
But I don’t think this guy has ever even seen Mojang and this guy now seems like just a jerk out for cash.
Ric is currently an advisor for uniloc, not the CEO or anything…