We haven’t had to report on Lodsys and some of their idiotic lawsuits that they were trying to pull off almost two years ago. Lodsys, also know as a patent troll, has tried to sue many small mobile game developers, not just on Android but iOS as well. Then suddenly it all stop and the world was at peace once more… until now.
Apparently Lodsys didn’t do so well with the lawsuits against a lot of the small mobile game developers so what does any company do when they lose to the small guy? They go after the big fish. Actually that isn’t what you should do but that is exactly what Lodsys is doing and the names on the list are quite impressive. Right now we have Gameloft, Backflip Studios, Pocket Gems, Disney and Gamevil are some of the new targets that Lodsys is going after.
Apple, for their iOS developers, officially intervened and basically told Lodsys where to go. Google wasn’t far behind that, defending the little guys as well. In this new round, Lodsys has named at least one offending application from each company that is apparently violating one of their patents. In case of Gameloft for example, the offending game is Real Soccer 2012.
So what is the patent that these companies have infringed upon? Pretty much the same ones that the little guys from two years ago were being sued for, the buttons for gamers to buy items/currency in-game from within the game as well as having a demo version of a game available with a button in-game that lets users pay and upgrade to the full version.
We are sure Lodsys will do about as good as they did against the little guys as they will with the big fish. However, if you are a small development company and get hit with one of these lawsuits, the EFF has a good FAQ on how to defend and protect yourself.
Websites Referenced: Ars Technica via TouchArcade
