Well this past week I've encountered a completely new challenge or annoyance to game development, besides designing, building, promoting and marketing a game. The attack of the patent trolls...

Last Friday I discovered a legal packet from one Treehouse Avatar Technologies saying I was in violation of their patents and threatening litigation if I didn't submit to licensing terms. The patent itself is one of those patents that should never have been issued, but well, we've got a fucked up patent system. More or less is patents the storing of game character information in a database and displaying it in a user interface over a network.

http://www.google.com/patents/US8180858

Treehouse also made waves by filing a lawsuit against Turbine the makers of the Lord of the Rings Online over this patent back in the fall and I can only assume is doing the same with any developer/publisher in the MMO industry.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/12/tr...atent-granted/

What is a head scratcher is how I'm even on their radar given my size. My only guess they are trying to shakedown some small game developers and intimidate them into licensing or settlement to rack up a few easy wins to fund going after the big guys.

In the past two days I've heard from at least three other small game developers that have received the same threat of litigation from Treehouse. Pretty disgusted by the whole thing.

I went public with the whole thing in hopes that other small game developers who might be intimidated by the letter and just roll over to their bullshit demands will come forward.

http://gamepolitics.com/2013/07/08/treehouse-targets-indie-studio-threat-patent-infringement-lawsuit

http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1hvlnb/patent_troll_threatens_small_game_developers/

James Fudge, the editor of GamePolitics and part of the ECA is trying to identify other developers that have received these threats. If you have you can contact him at james(at)theeca(dot)com

Yes, the patent would very clearly be ruled invalid, there's many problems with it in addition to decades of prior art. The problem is the trolls know the cost/time it takes for someone to get it to court where it can be ruled invalid is huge. So that's their leverage, it will cost you more to fight it than to simply give in and settle. Even though they know full well the patent would get blown up at trial.

That's why they are trying to pick on smaller game developers. They have even less resources at their disposal to fight, so make easy victims.

Avatar Technologies... Just that name gives it off.

Imma call my company "Achievement Unlocking Technologies" and sue everyone for using my patented method to display unlocked achievements on screen.

I just came out of a 3 hour meeting with a patent lawyer on Monday where we were applying for some new patents. After that meeting, I have no freaking clue what goes on in the minds of people who either patent the obvious or patent something that has been done for decades. In our meeting we constantly brought up possible prior art and were careful to ensure we were doing things that aren't currently being done. I just don't understand the arrogant, douchey attitude that one would have to have to completely disregard all of that and then screw over everyone they can.

Out of curiosity, do any of the new patent rules affect already granted patents, or do they only affect new patents?

I just came out of a 3 hour meeting with a patent lawyer on Monday where we were applying for some new patents. After that meeting, I have no freaking clue what goes on in the minds of people who either patent the obvious or patent something that has been done for decades. In our meeting we constantly brought up possible prior art and were careful to ensure we were doing things that aren't currently being done. I just don't understand the arrogant, douchey attitude that one would have to have to completely disregard all of that and then screw over everyone they can.

Out of curiosity, do any of the new patent rules affect already granted patents, or do they only affect new patents?

The problem is that since trivial patents get granted frequently it is in any companys best interest to file for patents on every single little thing their products do or might do in the future, if you don't get those patents a competitor or patent troll might get them and use them against you, many of the companies that do this have no intention of ever using those patents to harm competitors but their patents sometimes find their way into the hands of patent trolls through bankrupcies and mergers anyway (and thats when those patents become really dangerous)