12. Mojang is directly infringing one or more claims of the ’067 patent in this judicial
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
God, whoever typed it like that deserves to go die in a hole
Uniloc started in Australia and moved to the U.S. They've sued many (73) companies for violating it's patents, but only twenty five of those settled. They even sued Microsoft. Uniloc, yes, started out as a nice, legitimate company. Since then, they've become a parasite latching onto any company that even remotely uses what they used.
I'd also like to point out, patents usually last twenty years. Uniloc was invented and patented twenty years ago.
Well that might change, see Notch's remark on twitter: I'd rather stop selling our games in the US than to continue be at the mercy of their messed up legal system.
And I really wonder why this does not happen more often, I know of at least one Dutch company that refuses to sell their products (bikes) to US customers, not because of patents but because of the, just as silly, claims culture in the US. And if I were a software producer I would not sell my products in the US. I even wonder why eg. Samsung still wants to sell their goods in the US, the rest of the world is big enough.
But anyway, I really hope that Mojang decides to stop selling Minecraft in the US, it would get them at least a lot of attention. Notch's remark already got noticed by Groklaw (www.groklaw.net) an important site dedicated to educate people about the law and patents in particular.
The problems with abandoning the U.S. market is that it is so huge that it is hard to ignore. For things like video games, it can be the difference between staying profitable and not. Basically for a mass produced consumer product (which is the case of Minecraft), throwing away literally half of your market simply for political reasons is a tough choice to make.
Comparing software companies which sell to a mass audience to a bicycle manufacturer who makes custom bikes is not even really comparing the same thing. They may not need to sell to America as the competition on an international scale is much harder and there are logistical issues where the actual number of sales they will lose by refusing to sell to Americans is so minor they can dismiss it anyway. This particular company (since we are dealing with hypothetical comparisons as you haven't said what company it is) is likely at their manufacturing capacity anyway, so selling a few hundred bikes a year to America isn't worth the hassle.
Since I happen to live in America, it is a bit harder for me to walk away from selling to my own country where the laws would still apply to me anyway (even if I left and renounced citizenship, it would still take several years for me to get out of those kind of lawsuits easily). Still, I can understand why there might be some concern.
The reason why Samsung sells their stuff to America is precisely because of the size of the market. Ditto for many other companies. If you want to sell stuff here, you have to play by the rules that are here. The same applies to selling items in other countries, that all have their own little quirks about what you can do and how you can earn money by engaging in international trade. For the purposes of trade, you can't say that trade within the EU is really international anymore so I'm talking about what it takes for somebody in the EU to sell to a country like Pakistan or India or to other places with very different cultures, traditions, and laws. Perhaps you don't deal with the litigious nature of the American business climate (something that is discussed frequently in domestic political discussions here in America too I should note) but instead have to deal with flagrant corruption or having the government simply taking your inventory or refusing to let you bring the money you got from your customers in that country to some place outside of the country. If you want to see how weird that can get, see how Pepsi Cola was able to sell their soft drink in the former Soviet Union.
The one fly in the ointment for this kind of action by Notch, however, is that this same troll could come to Europe and try to file a lawsuit in the EU instead, perhaps even on the same patent. The laws are different in the EU, and I'm not sure if this particular patent would even qualify for protection in any EU country (likely not... I don't think it qualifies even under U.S. law), but refusing to settle or do any business in America may not work either. Since the business headquarters for this company isn't even in the USA but rather in Luxembourg, that would give them standing in EU courts as well... I'd dare say a stronger claim than even filing for a lawsuit in Texas.
Would Notch be content to sell his software to just Sweden, Russia, and China?
after reading the copy online about why they are suing mojang, I think uniloc is in the wrong. they are suing them for an incredibly vague reason, And going after multiple companies where only a handful of them have settled. their reasoning is murky and incredibly convoluted.
I doubt they will win this battle.
You are pretty much ignoring my point there, that you are trying to be a **** who is complaining that an asshole Well, what am I? A **** or an asshole?
like you has wasted 25 dollars for using the Mojang's users, servers and launcher to play Minecraft, I bought it in Beta, so it didn't cost that much.
when there are better ways which are free and are not technically pirated. How does that work? That's still considered piracy and still illegal! I cannot respect you for it.
Furthermore, I am not spending my life reading posts and responding to them to simply start a flame war, Not really a flame war.
I am responding to a person which is accusing me of pirating Minecraft, when that is impossible as they have their own login servers which will not allow anybody to play Minecraft if they do not login. You technically don't have to log in, and you can crack Minecraft. And you technically did pirate it.
Also, bolded text neither gives any strength to your point, you are simply outlining your text from the rest of other people, trying to show how superior you are over other people thinking *hahaha my text is fatter than theirs, it must be better*. I use bold to differentiate it from the original text in the quote. It might get confusing otherwise.
To me It looks like a company who made a patent very obscure and they're just using it to sue sue sue and the gov. needs to some how revoke the patent simple as that
To me It looks like a company who made a patent very obscure and they're just using it to sue sue sue and the gov. needs to some how revoke the patent simple as that
All software patents should be revoked. They ruin electronics for everyone.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's hard criticizing ideas when one is tired, so you'd better appreciate it when I criticize yours.
Well, That wasn't a very smart move. Now all Mojang supporters hate Uniloc. :/
And Uniloc is sueing many other game companies. That, was not very smart at all.
Uniloc might as well sue everyone with security if its a security system.
The're sueing a famous game company, and i'm pretty sure the patent is outdated or
something. so in the end, its 100% failure.
No money for you!
I don't hate Ric, I hate the guy who sued mojang for the stupidest reason ever.
"Pheww. The reaction to the Mojang story is just going through the roof. over 8,000 visitors just to my site. Its amazing to see so many people loyal to this game maker. Good on him.
But guys please be fair.
1. I am not the inventor of the patent in question.
2. The personal attacks are a bit much don't you think?
3. Patents are there to stop people stealing a technology you invented and letting you have a fair shot at making a living from it. If Uniloc wants to test this in court it is there prerogative, the same way that Mojang contested the use of the copyright term "Scrolls" and took people to court."
the parts that i think were just dumb i put in bold
Still I would like Mojang to stick to this "promise" of leaving the US market, at least all the current Minecraft fans will notice and make some noise. It may help a tiny bit to show the American public that the US patent system really is a horrible mess.
Notch went back on what he said about not selling in the US.
When he said he wouldn't be selling games in the US anymore, it felt like it was a knee-jerk reaction to the lawsuit.
In all honesty, it got me infuriated with Uniloc, which was probably the intended result.
Plus who in the hell patents software? I've heard of specially made bowls and other trinkets being patented, but software?
I'm from the US and I never knew you could do that, seeing as software isn't physical.
This could be a result of having the standards to have a patent being based off a several-hundred year old Italian model. Or government was being bureaucratic as usual when it gave this patent.
1 - The world really is bigger than the US. But it may be that it is worth the trouble for companies like Samsung. As I said I would not even think of selling anything over there, be it hardware, software or whatever, and when I think this way, there will surely be other companies that start thinking the same way.
Still I would like Mojang to stick to this "promise" of leaving the US market, at least all the current Minecraft fans will notice and make some noise. It may help a tiny bit to show the American public that the US patent system really is a horrible mess.
Leaving the US market... what?
OK, here is the list of the 10 countries with the highest GDP:
1.Qatar
2.Luxembourg
3.Singapore
4.Norway
5.Brunei 6.United States
7.United Arab Emirates
8.Switzerland
9.Netherlands
10.Austria
The US is has the sixth highest GDP. That is a BIG market. Plus, Mojang has already sold games to US customers. So they have US fans, cutting off part of a customer base is a STUPID idea.
"Pheww. The reaction to the Mojang story is just going through the roof. over 8,000 visitors just to my site. Its amazing to see so many people loyal to this game maker. Good on him.
But guys please be fair.
1. I am not the inventor of the patent in question.
2. The personal attacks are a bit much don't you think?
3. Patents are there to stop people stealing a technology you invented and letting you have a fair shot at making a living from it. If Uniloc wants to test this in court it is there prerogative, the same way that Mojang contested the use of the copyright term "Scrolls" and took people to court."
Except that it was Zenimax (Bethseda's parent company) that took Mojang to court, and that they were wrong for it. Does ANYBODY do proper research on Mojang?
Well, That wasn't a very smart move. Now all Mojang supporters hate Uniloc. :/
And Uniloc is sueing many other game companies. That, was not very smart at all.
Uniloc might as well sue everyone with security if its a security system. It's for security, but it's just for verification for purchasing on Android devices.
The're sueing a famous game company, and i'm pretty sure the patent is outdated or
something. Software patents haven't been around anywhere near long enough for any of them to be even a little bit outdated.
so in the end, its 100% failure.
No money for you!
I don't hate Ric, I hate the guy who sued mojang for the stupidest reason ever.
Yes, the government can revoke the patent, but the burden is on the party being sued to present evidence that the patent should be invalidated. I already provided evidence three pages ago that pre-dates the Uniloc patent by a decade and pretty much has all the same features in the claim in question.
Seriously, the PDF says "Mindcraft" and that Ric Richardson guy called Mojang "Majong" — 3 times.
Definitely patent trolls.
Although Ric has nothing to do with this and hate mail is not allowed, he still deserves something for referring to Mojang AB as "Majong".
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
God, whoever typed it like that deserves to go die in a hole
I'd also like to point out, patents usually last twenty years. Uniloc was invented and patented twenty years ago.
And come on, they called it Mindcraft.
I love mahjong!
I just saw the tweet: https://twitter.com/notch/status/227667695804497920
The problems with abandoning the U.S. market is that it is so huge that it is hard to ignore. For things like video games, it can be the difference between staying profitable and not. Basically for a mass produced consumer product (which is the case of Minecraft), throwing away literally half of your market simply for political reasons is a tough choice to make.
Comparing software companies which sell to a mass audience to a bicycle manufacturer who makes custom bikes is not even really comparing the same thing. They may not need to sell to America as the competition on an international scale is much harder and there are logistical issues where the actual number of sales they will lose by refusing to sell to Americans is so minor they can dismiss it anyway. This particular company (since we are dealing with hypothetical comparisons as you haven't said what company it is) is likely at their manufacturing capacity anyway, so selling a few hundred bikes a year to America isn't worth the hassle.
Since I happen to live in America, it is a bit harder for me to walk away from selling to my own country where the laws would still apply to me anyway (even if I left and renounced citizenship, it would still take several years for me to get out of those kind of lawsuits easily). Still, I can understand why there might be some concern.
The reason why Samsung sells their stuff to America is precisely because of the size of the market. Ditto for many other companies. If you want to sell stuff here, you have to play by the rules that are here. The same applies to selling items in other countries, that all have their own little quirks about what you can do and how you can earn money by engaging in international trade. For the purposes of trade, you can't say that trade within the EU is really international anymore so I'm talking about what it takes for somebody in the EU to sell to a country like Pakistan or India or to other places with very different cultures, traditions, and laws. Perhaps you don't deal with the litigious nature of the American business climate (something that is discussed frequently in domestic political discussions here in America too I should note) but instead have to deal with flagrant corruption or having the government simply taking your inventory or refusing to let you bring the money you got from your customers in that country to some place outside of the country. If you want to see how weird that can get, see how Pepsi Cola was able to sell their soft drink in the former Soviet Union.
The one fly in the ointment for this kind of action by Notch, however, is that this same troll could come to Europe and try to file a lawsuit in the EU instead, perhaps even on the same patent. The laws are different in the EU, and I'm not sure if this particular patent would even qualify for protection in any EU country (likely not... I don't think it qualifies even under U.S. law), but refusing to settle or do any business in America may not work either. Since the business headquarters for this company isn't even in the USA but rather in Luxembourg, that would give them standing in EU courts as well... I'd dare say a stronger claim than even filing for a lawsuit in Texas.
Would Notch be content to sell his software to just Sweden, Russia, and China?
Version 2.1 now updated for MC 1.6.2
I doubt they will win this battle.
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Curse PremiumAnd Uniloc is sueing many other game companies. That, was not very smart at all.
Uniloc might as well sue everyone with security if its a security system.
The're sueing a famous game company, and i'm pretty sure the patent is outdated or
something. so in the end, its 100% failure.
No money for you!
I don't hate Ric, I hate the guy who sued mojang for the stupidest reason ever.
"Pheww. The reaction to the Mojang story is just going through the roof. over 8,000 visitors just to my site. Its amazing to see so many people loyal to this game maker. Good on him.
But guys please be fair.
1. I am not the inventor of the patent in question.
2. The personal attacks are a bit much don't you think?
3. Patents are there to stop people stealing a technology you invented and letting you have a fair shot at making a living from it. If Uniloc wants to test this in court it is there prerogative, the same way that Mojang contested the use of the copyright term "Scrolls" and took people to court."
the parts that i think were just dumb i put in bold
Won't do anything about the US patent system.
Notch went back on what he said about not selling in the US.
When he said he wouldn't be selling games in the US anymore, it felt like it was a knee-jerk reaction to the lawsuit.
In all honesty, it got me infuriated with Uniloc, which was probably the intended result.
Plus who in the hell patents software? I've heard of specially made bowls and other trinkets being patented, but software?
I'm from the US and I never knew you could do that, seeing as software isn't physical.
Leaving the US market... what?
OK, here is the list of the 10 countries with the highest GDP:
1.Qatar
2.Luxembourg
3.Singapore
4.Norway
5.Brunei
6.United States
7.United Arab Emirates
8.Switzerland
9.Netherlands
10.Austria
The US is has the sixth highest GDP. That is a BIG market. Plus, Mojang has already sold games to US customers. So they have US fans, cutting off part of a customer base is a STUPID idea.
Except that it was Zenimax (Bethseda's parent company) that took Mojang to court, and that they were wrong for it. Does ANYBODY do proper research on Mojang?