It has been rather quiet lately in regards to Lodsys and their friendly patent trolling but all good things must come to an end and that is the case today. According to a post over on Reddit, Justin Smith, the developer of the Tiny Wings clone on Android called Dillo Hills has gotten a Lodsys Patent Infringement welcome package.
You would think that Lodsys has enough on their plates with all the current suing they already have under way and the other indie developers who have received the same sort of welcome package as Justin but apparently not. In response to this new patent infringement welcome package, Justin has removed the free lite version of Dillo Hills off the Android Market for the time being so he isn’t willingly infringing on Lodsys patents.
Here is Justin’s post on Reddit:
“Yesterday, I received a bulky envelope containing a massive stack of papers from an address I didn’t recognize: Lodsys, LLC, from somewhere in Texas. It was a kind gesture, as I’m actually starting to run low on toilet paper, but some of the papers claim that one of my personal/hobby projects, Dillo Hills, is infringing upon one or more of their patents. Anyway, the very first thing I did is take the free version of the game off the market, so that I am not willingly infringing on any of these patents, no matter how stupid and unreasonable they are.”
At least Justin still has his sense of humor unless Lodsys has a patent somewhere covering sarcasm. The patent in question is the usual in-game purchase button which allows players to upgrade from the free lite version to the full version by pressing the button in-game which takes you to the full version on the Android Market that you can purchase.
Developer Website: Justin Smith
Website Referenced: PocketGamer
