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Patent trolls attacking small indie developers

Matt Heaton · 2016-01-14T16:21:11

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/US8180858Treehouse 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

Games Business and Law Business

Started by MattHeaton July 09, 2013 11:29 PM

24 comments, last by Tom Sloper 8 years, 5 months ago

samoth

9,833

July 11, 2013 08:29 AM

Use their own weapons against them.

Avatar is a registered trademark in the USA, owned for various classes by various companies.

Among others, IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer software for the generation of web based computer programs and instruction manuals / IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Business technology software consultation services are owned by iRise CORPORATION CALIFORNIA.

It may be worth pointing iRise corp to the derogatory and damaging use of their trade mark by a "computer programs" and "software consultation services" type of company. It doesn't cost you more than a letter.

Pufixas

1,167

July 11, 2013 03:08 PM

I would recommend you to watch this TED talk. Maybe you could use some of advises that this guy gives.

“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like.”? Nigel Marsh

Servant of the Lord

33,739

July 11, 2013 03:37 PM

And if you want to get annoyed, or learn more about it, you can listen to When Patents Attack. Doesn't give much advice though.

The US Patent office didn't want software to be patentable... but were supposedly leaned on by congress, and so now they just allow almost anything software-wise to be patented, without even checking if it had been previously patented or overly obvious. This explains why there are so many companies that have almost identical patents.

MattHeaton

212

Author

July 11, 2013 07:41 PM

Free Software Foundation might be a good company to contact. They are most open-source supporters, but they are pro little-guy and against software patents in general and might be willing lend you a lawyer or give you some legal advice. There was also a small game-development law firm in the internet news a half-dozen months ago that was providing free or cheap legal assistance for studios - I don't remember the details though; anyone know who I'm talking about?.

Pubpat (Public Patent Foundation) is providing support against some other trolls going after app developers. I've contacted them about this now troll, threatening game developers. So far I know of 6 other small game developers who received threats of litigation from Treehouse over this patent. I can only assume the real number is at least 10x that.

Starpires - Turn based, MMO, space strategy. Want to rule the galaxy?

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MattHeaton

212

Author

July 11, 2013 07:45 PM

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

The SHIELD ACT currently in debate in congress does not affect the patents themselves but rather the litigation over them. The loser of the litigation would be required to pay attorney fees, which is currently not the case. And since the trolls loose about 95% of the time it goes to trial they would have more at risk. Companies feel much better about pressing the issue to trial if they their fees would get reimbursed. It also requires the patent hold if they meet the troll criteria defined in the bill to put up a $50k bond prior to filing the lawsuit. This to effectively shut them out of litigating against small targets in mass.

Alas this bill will still be a few months from passing and won't affect suits already filed so their appears to be a mad rush by the trolls to get any suits filed before hand.

Starpires - Turn based, MMO, space strategy. Want to rule the galaxy?

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MattHeaton

212

Author

July 11, 2013 07:48 PM

Use their own weapons against them.

Avatar is a registered trademark in the USA, owned for various classes by various companies.

Among others, IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer software for the generation of web based computer programs and instruction manuals / IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Business technology software consultation services are owned by iRise CORPORATION CALIFORNIA.

It may be worth pointing iRise corp to the derogatory and damaging use of their trade mark by a "computer programs" and "software consultation services" type of company. It doesn't cost you more than a letter.

Love it!

Starpires - Turn based, MMO, space strategy. Want to rule the galaxy?

Find me on: Twitter - Facebook

DividedByZero

1,261

July 14, 2013 11:11 AM

Man, this sucks. There is too much patent Yakuza crap and litigation going on these days. It seems that it is the new form of Cyber-bullying.

It is the worst feeling opening up one of those letters, though. I got my first one in the mail in March - LOL.

Titan.

159

July 18, 2013 12:09 PM

Your country sound wonderful guys, but there is a thing I don't understand, if these patent can't stand in front of a tribunal, why do you care anyway, why not just ignore the letter, and if they start a procedure, they will have to pay for it and you'll just have to defend yourself. Why would you need to start a procedure (and pay) to break the patent before any legal action from the troll ?

Hodgman

52,718

July 18, 2013 12:42 PM

and if they start a procedure, they will have to pay for it and you'll just have to defend yourself.

Because you have to pay to defend yourself. Even if you win, you probably won't be refunded for that.

And the system is broken, so they'll probably win too :/

. 22 Racing Series .

alh420

5,995

July 18, 2013 12:50 PM

and if they start a procedure, they will have to pay for it and you'll just have to defend yourself.
Because you have to pay to defend yourself. Even if you win, you probably won't be refunded for that.
And the system is broken, so they'll probably win too :/

Not to mention all the time you have to spend not developing your game, instead spending it talking to lawyers, sitting on planes to travel to whatever place they decide to sue you, the mental stress, etc, etc.

It doesn't matter what country you live in, if you sell your product in the US (and who doesn't with digital content in english?), they can sue you in an american court.