Lodsys Takes On Gaming Heavyweights Including Rovio, EA, and Atari in Patent Dispute

[MacRumors]

Patent holding firm Lodsys, which has received tremendous publicity fortargeting iOS and Android app developers in a patent dispute over the developers' use of in-app purchasing and upgrade links within their apps, has amended the list of defendants in its lawsuit on the manner to include a number of high-profile gaming firms.

As detailed by FOSS Patents, Lodsys has now included Angry Birds developer Rovio, Electronic Arts, Atari, Square Enix, and Take-Two Interactive in its complaint. From the amended complaint regarding Rovio:

Defendant Rovio has infringed and continues to infringe, directly, indirectly, literally, under the doctrine of equivalents, contributorily, and/or through the inducement of other, one or more claims of the '565 patent. Rovio makes, sells, uses, imports, and/or offers to sell infringing applications, including but not limited to Angry Birds for iPhone and Angry Birds for Android, which infringe at least claim 27 of '565 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271.

Besides adding the five game studios to its lawsuit, Lodsys also dropped Vietnamese developer Wulven Games from the suit, making for a total of eleven developers and companies targeted by the suit. All told, Lodsys has targeted 37 entities in suits related to a number of patents, with defendants ranging from small developers to major firms such as HP, Best Buy, The New York Times Company and EA.

Apple previously stepped forward to assist iOS developers being targeted by Lodsys, claiming that Apple is "indisputably licensed" to the intellectual property in question and that third-party developers are covered by that license. Apple has also filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit and take on the role of a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff.

Article Link: Lodsys Takes On Gaming Heavyweights Including Rovio, EA, and Atari in Patent Dispute

 

[koruki]

They should pull the troops out of Afghanistan and send them to Lodsys's office in the continued fight against terrorism

 

[litchie]

what they did with the patent is to sue, not to protect something they make. That's the difference.

 

[wordoflife]

Someone please tell Lodsys to stop before they further embarrass themselves.

 

[gglockner]

Eventually, the hubris of Lodsys will lead them to sue God, or at least Larry Ellison. I predict that verdict will be in favor of the defendant.

 

[chrono1081]

I am sooo glad they did this. I hope they get bankrupted.

 

[shartypants]

For some of these big buys, it may be cheaper to just pay them, but I hope they fight them instead, out of principle. A patent of upgrading? WTF!?

 

[color guy]

love the quote from Edison.
apparantly much of what he "invented" was actually done by his team.
He was just good at exploiting and marketing and extracting patent fees.

 

[thelonelylimo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8K2)

seems as if Lodsys is attempting suicide...

 

[-AG-]

Has Lodsys become the new Psystar?

Another BS headline that will hopefully die a painful death in the next few months.

And for those kids that are playing at home.. Psystar Corporation

 

[Drunken Master]

37 suits?

**** off!

 

[marksman]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Is it not suicide though because they have nothing to lose. They don't sell anything to the public and if someone needs to license their patent they will pay. I just wish there was a way to ensure they would have to cover all related legal costs if they lose. Right now they are essentially free rolling risking only their own legal fees vs the pay out of large settlements and licensing deals. It sucks.

 

[trevelyn]

There ya go, Thomas, I fixed your quote for you:

"I never did anything by accident,
nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work and ripping off Nikola Tesla."
-Thomas Edison

 

[TheAppleDragon]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

What's next?

"Lodsys Takes On Humans over Breathing Patents"?!

These guys are nuts!

How did they get one nanometer with this junk?

 

[coder12]

This is like walking into a bear's den covered in honey--yer' gonna lose.

 

[concordeBOAC]

Exactly ! Makes the original quote rather ironic

There ya go, Thomas, I fixed your quote for you:

"I never did anything by accident,
nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work and ripping off Nikola Tesla."
-Thomas Edison

 

[Joker2206]

There ya go, Thomas, I fixed your quote for you:

"I never did anything by accident,
nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work and ripping off Nikola Tesla."
-Thomas Edison

I couldn't compose it better than this.

 

[mentaluproar]

Popcorn anyone?

 

[benhollberg]

Why am I hearing all this about patent trolls and other stuff. The company, Lodsys, is just trying to protect their patents which they should do as a good business decision.

 

[benhollberg]

Exactly, I am an Apple fanboy and I think Lodsys is doing the right thing.

 

[nervouk]

Losing the case should be the least of Lodsys guy's worries. If he messes with too many people they're gonna find his body in a dumpster in a grubby alleyway somewhere, and a list of suspects too long to investigate.

 

[PapaStu]

Unfortunately 'Atari' (or should I say Infogrames) hasn't been a heavyweight for some time in the gaming world. I guess one big game has made Rovio a gaming heavyweight as well? Yes Rovio has gotten lots of downloads, but they haven't released anything in over a year that isn't an Angry Birds update.

The fun will end soon enough for Lodsys. I'm sure at some point they're going to sue the government for the way the some state/national entity collects money online and really end things for themselves.

 

[dennno]

Losing the case should be the least of Lodsys guy's worries. If he messes with too many people they're gonna find his body in a dumpster in a grubby alleyway somewhere, and a list of suspects too long to investigate.

Reminds me of the Simpsons Mr.Burns episode.

Except Lodsys is a much bigger troll. It puzzles me as to why they continue with this pointless venture. Everyone knows they don't actually have a business running, unless you call waiting for a big company to infringe on patents a business. It's definitely not an ethical one. I really hope they meet their demise. Karma is looking your way Lodsys!

 

[kiljoy616]

Makes sense, they have nothing to loose even if they did loose.

 

[kiljoy616]

Think about it this way, the troops are fighting for people who make up Lodsys can continue to do what they do.