According to Uniloc, they've managed to force 25 companies to their knees, and taking on Microsoft would literally cause a internet revolution. The Harbringers are among us, grab all the Nokia phones and duct tape, we've got equipment to build if this **** really goes through. The World will come down around Mojang, and other companies, if they can scam Mojang out of every penny that they have earned from Minecraft and/or Scrolls, as they did for over Three hundred and eighty-eight million (or billion) dollars from Microsoft.
It's just a recommendation. Just grab some Nokia if this really goes through.
Worst of all, they are suing based on the end rather than the means. It's like the inventor of the knife suing the maker of scissors because they are both similar systems made for cutting.
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Hmm, i wonder if there is a law against suing... I think there is one. Made perhaps by a government that got annoyed by one that constantly sue.
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I am a problem seeker, so I can solve them. When I see a problem, that I did, I try to fix it. When there are problems I can't fix, I ask for help. But when people wants to make problems, even unknowingly, I try to stop them. Sometimes I get hurt, but will stand up after I fall.
It's a shame any of those companies gave them a single penny, and it's a shame the current system of law lets them sue for the most obscure patents. People should counter-sue, and I think they could.
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It's hard criticizing ideas when one is tired, so you'd better appreciate it when I criticize yours.
Looks like uniloc already lost this, thank god . Security isnt worth suing about, go f*** yourselves uniloc.
Oh, and what is mindcraft, its minecraft you stupid s*** heads.
Looks like uniloc already lost this, thank god . Security isnt worth suing about, go f*** yourselves uniloc.
It has nothing to do with security. It's an obscure software patent. Very obscure, very general and it shouldn't even be possible to patent something that obscure.
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It's hard criticizing ideas when one is tired, so you'd better appreciate it when I criticize yours.
if I understand this correctly, this patent is about security. the inventor of the HTTPS connection could get sued for making secure connections, they can sue banks for not allowing them to access other people's accounts, they can sue the government and military for having classified documents! this patent makes no sense whatsoever!
this company is almost as bad as Apple!
I do hope they loose every case with every company for having the world's dumbest patent. sometimes, the modern legal system just makes no sense...
Better settle Notch! Ask them how many Diamond blocks they want or if they'd prefer to be paid in Emeralds. I hear the villagers love them Emeralds ;-)
Not that I take this seriously at all, but considering the PDF of the lawsuit says 'Mindcraft' says to me this is another patent-troll, and it won't go anywhere.
I know! And this is the official document after all.
Wow... this makes absoutely NO sense to me whatsoever! All I can say is these guys need to go away! Also, NOT SQUARE ENIX D: and ummm Mindcraft? Seriously? WHO GETS THE NAME WRONG? Even when I say these things are violating stuff, which I don't, I say the right name! And reading over this, it seems like it's only cos of the PE version... we should just band together and get Uniloc to STFU! I never understand serious things... you'll have to excuse me when I get so pissed... DON'T SHUT DOWN MOJANG D: I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS PATENT MEANS!!! I know you can beat these guys Mojang! I know you will! Cmon Mojang! Uniloc is just trolling... right? RIGHT? What will I do without Minecraft? I'll have to play OTHER games D: I can't even THINK about it!
I sincerely hope they get counter-sued for things like this. Even with just one lawsuit against them, pretty much every one they tried to sue is going to jump on the bandwagon, full steam ahead, aiming at the heart of the beast.
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It's hard criticizing ideas when one is tired, so you'd better appreciate it when I criticize yours.
Minecraft not Mindcraft *****, please type carefully before suing Mojang.
While this is a legal technicality that if it goes to trial looking like this, it is easily considered a clerical error and is meaningless at this stage of the lawsuit. Trust me, it will be quickly corrected if these guys have educational credentials better than an elementary school diploma. I could be mistaken on that notion though.
So.... There sueing Mojang for storing information in an electronic device? Boy, even im not a genius in Law, and i know that what there doing violates the "data act of 1975" or something like that....
No, the actual patent is a bit more involved. If you want to read the whole patent including looking at drawings/diagrams, you can look here:
If you've never read an actual patent before, it can get sort of confusing. Still, what they are claiming is that they invented the idea of being able to digital license authentication for mobile devices. I'll talk more below.
"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."
Is it just me or does that explanation seem like they are suing over a "Technique" rather than software, and a method used by almost every multiplayer game these days. Except the fact that its on an Andriod device, which they don't own. It's like going into a new coffee shop and getting a patent on how you drink your coffee. Then suing everyone there because they are drinking their coffee that way even though they were doing it everywhere else before AND they don't even own the coffee shop.
You pretty much nailed the idea down, including the coffee shop reference (more or less). Keep in mind this is a patent lawsuit, not a copyright lawsuit. Patents are about ideas, and they indeed could be over pretty mundane things like ways to drink coffee, or in this case about trying to authenticate that a valid license has been purchased by a customer who is using a hand-held device, which is what this patent covers.
There are several things that could be in Mojang's favor on this one though.
Notch needs a safety torch to protect himself from all the patent trolls!
He has a safety torch that is perhaps better than a cadre of lawyers. He has an army of fans including several very skilled professionals who know their **** and can fight back against this kind of crap. Frankly, I think Uniloc bit off more than they could chew by taking on Notch and Mojang. They are thinking that Mojang is a piddling little company out of Sweden that is insignificant with a bunch of pre-pubescent fans... sort of like Zynga but even smaller. They really don't have a clue what sort of tidal wave is going to hit them when all is said and done, that Notch simply has to announce he is running low on funds and a Kickstarter project to fund the lawsuit alone is going to be enough money to hire the best lawyers in America to fight this thing.
My own professional analysis is that Mojang is going to try at least to challenge the patent by attempting to invalidate the issuance of the patent. This can be most easily done in two ways:
Obviousness - Patents can't be granted on things that are obvious to "practitioners of the art". In this case, anybody who has deep knowledge of computer science could think up this idea on the spur of the moment given the need to perform the action. If the need was there to authenticate a piece of software remotely but the way to get that accomplished wasn't obvious (simply making a request of a remote database is what is claimed as "non obvious") then they may have a legitimate claim.
Prior Art - If this has been done at all prior to the issuance of the patent. Software patents are particularly notorious for having a serious weakness with prior art, as most things weren't even patented until the 1990's in the computer industry explicitly because the USPTO wouldn't even let them be patented. Technically it is still illegal, but the USPTO now grants the patents and courts have been letting them get away with it too.
I especially love in the patent application where they mention explicitly DVD discs as an example of the technology they are claiming to be using, but applied to mobile devices. I'm pretty sure that I saw a portable DVD device at COMDEX prior to 2001 (when the patent was issued) and there could be many other mobile devices that could be claimed as prior art.
Heck, I think you could find the authentication method being used for some of the early MUDs, and Microsoft also had an authentication system in place for their Windows CE operating system prior to 2001 (explicitly for mobile devices BTW). That is just going off of the top of my head on some things I know about. I'm sure there are also numerous other trade publications including the ACM Journal and others that could be introduced as evidence of prior art that would be scathing.
Yeah, these guys are trolls, but they are going to be buried trolls.
Notch should post their (snail mail) address, e-mail address, and phone number on the front page of Minecraft.net. It would take a DNS and spam attack to a new level and give this company a glimpse into what the fan community could do in this case.
After reading into it, I am pretty much sure that this guy is just doing this to get money. He has sued MANY companies, and, surprisingly, won many of them, including one with Microsoft for $388 million. This won't go well for Mojang...
Anybody else get a grand idea to phone the crap outta' them? Their number is at the bottom of the pdf. As well as their emails =) MUAHAHAHA EBOMB'S INCOMING
It's just a recommendation. Just grab some Nokia if this really goes through.
Oh, and what is mindcraft, its minecraft you stupid s*** heads.
Dig them holes.
but seriously. they should at least put the effort into it to spell Minecraft right. that's like, a direct insult added to the stupidity.
this company is almost as bad as Apple!
I do hope they loose every case with every company for having the world's dumbest patent. sometimes, the modern legal system just makes no sense...
I know! And this is the official document after all.
Attorney Barry J. Bumgardner.
Yeah...
While this is a legal technicality that if it goes to trial looking like this, it is easily considered a clerical error and is meaningless at this stage of the lawsuit. Trust me, it will be quickly corrected if these guys have educational credentials better than an elementary school diploma. I could be mistaken on that notion though.
No, the actual patent is a bit more involved. If you want to read the whole patent including looking at drawings/diagrams, you can look here:
Patent 6,857,067
If you've never read an actual patent before, it can get sort of confusing. Still, what they are claiming is that they invented the idea of being able to digital license authentication for mobile devices. I'll talk more below.
You pretty much nailed the idea down, including the coffee shop reference (more or less). Keep in mind this is a patent lawsuit, not a copyright lawsuit. Patents are about ideas, and they indeed could be over pretty mundane things like ways to drink coffee, or in this case about trying to authenticate that a valid license has been purchased by a customer who is using a hand-held device, which is what this patent covers.
There are several things that could be in Mojang's favor on this one though.
He has a safety torch that is perhaps better than a cadre of lawyers. He has an army of fans including several very skilled professionals who know their **** and can fight back against this kind of crap. Frankly, I think Uniloc bit off more than they could chew by taking on Notch and Mojang. They are thinking that Mojang is a piddling little company out of Sweden that is insignificant with a bunch of pre-pubescent fans... sort of like Zynga but even smaller. They really don't have a clue what sort of tidal wave is going to hit them when all is said and done, that Notch simply has to announce he is running low on funds and a Kickstarter project to fund the lawsuit alone is going to be enough money to hire the best lawyers in America to fight this thing.
My own professional analysis is that Mojang is going to try at least to challenge the patent by attempting to invalidate the issuance of the patent. This can be most easily done in two ways:
Heck, I think you could find the authentication method being used for some of the early MUDs, and Microsoft also had an authentication system in place for their Windows CE operating system prior to 2001 (explicitly for mobile devices BTW). That is just going off of the top of my head on some things I know about. I'm sure there are also numerous other trade publications including the ACM Journal and others that could be introduced as evidence of prior art that would be scathing.
Yeah, these guys are trolls, but they are going to be buried trolls.
Notch should post their (snail mail) address, e-mail address, and phone number on the front page of Minecraft.net. It would take a DNS and spam attack to a new level and give this company a glimpse into what the fan community could do in this case.
Version 2.1 now updated for MC 1.6.2
Wait a minute. That can't be right.