a system and method ... for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data stored on an electronic device.
It is not known at this time what, if anything, this means for Mojang. Of note, Markus "Notch" Persson has certainly voiced his opinion on the matter, stating that he "will throw piles of money at making sure they don't get a cent". Little else is known about the lawsuit at this time.
Notch has made the lawsuit PDF available for viewing, which you can see by clicking here. He has also posted a detailed write-up on his perspective on software patents - you can view it by clicking here.
Uniloc appears to be suing numerous other gaming producers allegedly violating this patent, including Square Enix, Electronic Arts and others.
Any further specifics of the case will be covered as they develop.
UPDATE: Ric Richardson has posted his views on the situation as well, which you can read by clicking here. It is important to note that Mr. Richardson has had no direct part in the lawsuit of Uniloc vs. Mojang.
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No. That's something that's just corrected by the defendant. "No, it's not Mindcraft, it's Minecraft". Argument heard, documents adjusted, court gets on to the meat of the matter.
However, from the patent: '
"A portable licensing medium is configured to communicate with the electronic device...."
um... I don't know of any portable licensing medium in use at all here. I mean, the software itself is downloaded, yeah, but it sure ain't portable - it's on my desktop. And it's not being used on cards, usb devices, or any other item to be configured for use with Mojang's licensing.
Oh and "The license data is used to determine whether to allow access to the electronic data" - this doesn't work. Minecraft uses the logins to _allow_ other people to use a server to determine whether they can log in to their servers. But you _can_ play minecraft offline without a userid and password. Not saying you should, but you can. So it doesn't _actually_ determine whether the data can be accessed, only whether you can access updates and/or servers that require your authentication.
But Notch's lawyers will come up with all of this stuff, I'm sure. Any good lawyer could beat this mess.
I'm just glad Notch is planning to, instead of settling.
-Sevi
district and elsewhere in Texas, including at least claim 107, without the consent or authorization
of Uniloc, by or through making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing Android based
applications for use on cellular phones and/or tablet devices that require communication with a
server to perform a license check to prevent the unauthorized use of said application, including,
but not limited to, Mindcraft." its says "mindcraft" instead of "minecraft"
i know right WTF
Mojang didn't beat Bethesda. Bethesda put up the proposal to allow Mojang to use the name "Scrolls" once. Mojang did not get the trademark or any rights at all, except being able to use the name this once.
Agreed. The man should be shown to a load of game-making tools while others handle the legal stuff...
Who cares? He doesn't need to be. He only needs to get the point across. Damned Uniloc supporter.
That's not the same. This is a PATENT, not a COPYRIGHT.
A PATENT is the protection of an IDEA, not software or hardware or any other existing thing.
Did you even see the pdf link? It has a perfect copy of the legal document. I'm pretty sure that counts as 'fact'. And no, MCForums did not make Notch look 'whingy', which is not even a word. (I suppose you're trying to spell 'whiny').
Actually, they're suing for the Android version of Minecraft PE, based on the word 'Android' in the PDF. Although since the name has a 14 character (or 16 if you count spaces) difference from what they're suing (they're suing 'Mindcraft', which is different from Minecraft Pocket Edition) this sue might not even work. Minecraft PE doesn't even USE an authentication system, so these guys have no idea what they're doing.
Apparently Uniloc has 'exclusive rights to license checks on Android cellular phones', but I'm pretty sure Minecraft PE isn't using any license checks.
At least Bethesda realized how silly they were being and allowed it. Personally I don't think it should have worked out how it did since that kind of thing happens more often in the music business.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/6857067
It's clear they're doing it for the money, as they were doing it for 8 years against Microsoft as well, and won $338 million, then lost it in the appeal. Guessing they want their money back, and don't care who it comes from.
Technically all GSM based phones use smart cards - they just come in a smaller form-factor now (SIM card for those not following).
Also, many government IT systems and large companies use smart cards for authentication. Often pointlessly, but used nonetheless.
Depends on local laws. It would probably be ignored and the case proceed anyway in most places. Worst case they would need to re-file, which would simply put things off a few days or weeks.
I really hope Notch does more than just win this case against Uniloc, he should comprehensively defeat it's points basing his counter arguments on plain old common sense. It's evident to me that the phone provider and communication provider have to provide some form of protocol that transfers the account details to Mojang's Minecraft login servers securely, and that Mojang are only able to use these protocols because the phone provider and communication provider already agreed to allow this by registering Mojang's Minecraft login servers and allowing them to use a certain protocol. If the phone provider and communication provider did so unlawfully, then just maybe there would be a case for Uniloc to argue but I certainly can't see why it's Mojang who have to defend themselves in this case.
Cheers ...
BrickVoid
1. They're doing it for the money
... Well, yeah. That's why you would sue people, lawl.
2. They said Mindcraft, not Minecraft
Just goes to show that some people are horribly stupid and helpless. This will show everyone that they're just a bunch of scammers and will try their best to bring them down. I hope Uniloc gets the money from a game that really doesn't exist.
Bottom line, money is the root of all evil, and this is a prime example, and the comments so far reflect that.
Why must every company come up with a "reason" to sue Mojang?<_<
Like what the h*ll!
These company's sue Mojang because Mojang is becoming richer by the second (look at the slow,rising number of people buying Minecraft on minecraft.net).
What a world we all live in.
there you go...its further down the page.