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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This week, David and Toby talk about Minecon 2012, Creeper clothes and other awesome Minecraftiness - check it out!
It's Australian...
And since Mindcraft does not exist, the lawsuit is void
Ummm....let me take a wild guess and say: Loads upon loads of money
They change the language and the order but a process like this is a general use thing and therefore the patent is useless.
2. They spelled Minecraft wrong in the PDF. (lol)
3. On the relief prayer part of the PDF, it practically says "a. Mojang broke our pointless rule, b. Give us money. c.Give us more money, d, Can I haz moar?, and e. MONEY!
In other words, they're trying to get everyone to break the rules of the worthless patent to get some money.
Good luck, Notch.
server to perform a license check ..."
This is just ridiculous. No matter what way you look at this, it's wrong.
Look at it one way, Uniloc is being petty and pathetic for suing for such a broad idea. I'm sure that the number of companies exercising the aforementioned practice is uncountable! Does this mean that the first person to ever make a tower defense game can sue the makers of the thousands of others? What about web browsers? Game consoles? Couches? This seems like a brilliant way to make a great deal of industries turn into monopolies. Seriously, just because I have an idea first doesn't mean that anyone else's discovery of the ideas is any less valuable or original.
Okay, let's look at it the other way and say that the lawsuit is plausible under law. Noting what I just said above, I'd find that an even more pressing problem, since it is saying that the ideas I mentioned are acceptable and defensible!
Just reading this makes me disappointed in all of the accusers. There's nothing I can say to fully express it. My concern goes out to Mojang and all companies who have endured, are enduring, and will endure this unwarranted, illogical nuisance.
It's nice and all that they have an idea, but one that has been done before their time and one they had left to collect dust till they find a chance to bring the legal system into the mix.
Their website states that they're "in the business of developing big ideas". If that's the case, why don't they sell their ideas instead of letting them remain obscure and unknown? Then they list on their website some of the major lawsuits as a source of pride, right alongside vague references to their anti-piracy patent and where it's applicable. And that's not the only page. Almost every page has references to them being lawsuit-happy idiots.
this is really stupid they figured that if they could win against Microsoft they can win against anyone and everyone, I will be lol when they lose to MOJANG and the other big corporations. If MOJANG wins they should sue them back for making them look like the bad guys when they really are not and to cause them tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal coasts.
Yeah... cause you know, Wiki trolling won't get your account banned or anything. Oh wait, yeah it kind of will...
http://news.priorsmart.com/uniloc-v-electronic-arts-l6r9/
This is the suit against Electronic Arts. It's the same document except for the names!
Even Wikipedia has them listed as a patent troll near the bottom of the page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniloc
They have sued 73 companies over the years and do nothing whatsoever but sue people.
"I'm in the wrong line of work...Who would have thought you could make a job of suing people for a living.."
The patent in question is generically worded such that any client application that does a server handshake to verify license is infringing on the patent. http://www.google.com/patents/US6857067
Uniloc has no product whatsoever, all they have is a series of anti-piracy patents they've built and/or collected, they've labeled it as their own innovation, and they sue everyone they believe they can win against. Their entire business is patent research and lawsuit while claiming they "grow and innovate technology". http://www.uniloc.com (see their Company and Intellectual Property pages for more specific info on their ********)
Actually, you and Nicksterr both missed on that one...
I'll grant that nearly all of the commentary being made on this forum is by people who don't even understand what a patent is, where there is some real confusion about the differences between copyright, patents, and trademarks (three very different concepts). Part of this is due to several politically involved people (mainly a bunch of organizations that have acronyms ending in *AA like MPAA and RIAA) who want to invent the concept of "intellectual property" out of whole cloth and deliberately want to confuse people that there is some general notion called "intellectual property.
While it is a political essay and not really legal opinion, this essay is well worth reading if you are confused about the three concepts or even the notion of "intellectual property":
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
All this said, I think it is a very relevant topic for the MC Forums, particularly because there really isn't a formal relationship between Curse (the "owner" of these forums) and Mojang. Mojang recognizes these forums and has "blessed" them so far as linking to this forum and even visiting these forums from time to time, but it shouldn't be seen as necessarily a fiduciary conflict of interest or other reason to not post this.
Besides, it is of intense interest to the Minecraft community and is one of the few cases that it is real news being posted by Curse rather than the drivel which is claimed to be newsworthy. Trying to gauge what the Minecraft community's reaction to this bit of news is worthwhile.
Of anything said on this thread, I think this is the most relevant. If Mojang went under financially, especially if they went under because of this lawsuit, I'd have to agree that money would literally be thrown at Notch where he would likely end up with more money after the lawsuit than he had before. Notch certainly does respect the player community of Minecraft and hasn't done a whole lot to burn that good faith either.
Unlike many other small businesses, there is virtually no downside for Mojang to fight this lawsuit to the bitter end and even throw nearly all their resources at not just resisting this patent troll but to even counter-sue the troll and pummel them into the ground and turn this Texas company into a Mojang subsidary by the time everything is done (with Notch's final act to shut the company down I might add).
Uniloc has no clue what they have got themselves into by filing this lawsuit, particularly against Mojang.
As said above, please save your anti-American hate speech. There are a whole bunch of decent American companies who do not file lawsuits, and in fact the largest use of patents in America is for defensive purposes. Typically if somebody is stupid enough to file a patent lawsuit against you, there are likely patents you own that they are violating so what happens is the companies get into cross-licensing deals and the lawsuit is dropped even before the trial preliminaries happen.
Still, don't get a knee jerk reaction about the actions of a few of the 300 million people in the USA and try to overgeneralize your mind view of those people.
Please, get over this whole thing about Minecraft/Mindcraft. It will be considered a clerical error alone, and doesn't have any impact in terms of the law or the ability to prosecute this lawsuit. Yes, small details do matter, but this is one that will be fixed in due time and doesn't change the rest of the claims of the lawsuit. Of all of the things to obsess over, this one ranks dead last in terms of reasons to dismiss the lawsuit.
Jurisdiction in eastern Texas is a bit more of a stretch, but I would dare say that there are at least a few Mojang customers in eastern Texas. The big thing is the claim of the patent itself, where the best way to attack this lawsuit is to suggest that either the patent was issued in error by the USPTO, or that due to prior art and obviousness there should have been additional claims on the patent that would reduce its scope to the point that Mojang was not infringing the patent. Looking through the patent, I have a hard time even being able to see if Mojang was violating the patent either.
Certainly a patent granted for doing something that has been done countless time before but to say "I deserve a patent on this because it is now being done with mobile devices" is really lame. On the positive side, Mojang might even get a formal precedent saying that all such patents are invalid... and that would be a sweet victory for Notch.