Angry Birds creator Rovio has been catapulted into the middle of an ugly patent war started by a Texas-based patent licensing company, Lodsys.
Lodsys is going after Atari, EA, and Take-Two Interactive, Rovio and other app game makers, citing infringements to four of its patents.
Angry Birds maker Rovio in particular, said Lodsys, had infringed upon U.S. Patent 7,620,565 which purports to pertain to having “A network…that interacts with a user, gathers information from the user, communicates the information to the product’s vendor, and receives new pre-programmed interactions from the vendor for future interactions with the user.” Sounds like every single modern social game in existence, to us.
In layman’s terms, what Lodsys appears to be suing over is the phenomenon of in-app upgrades, which have become the main monetization model of the entire app industry. Indeed, 37 companies so far are listed in Lodsys’ legal complaint, though based on such a vague patent, we’re surprised thousands more didn’t make the infringement cut.
Lodsys is also apparently sending legal letters to developers, threatening action, with the effect that many have opted to pull their apps rather than face the potential of legal fees. A sad smothering of innovation, if you ask us.
Rovio itself told the WSJ it had not received any direct contact from Lodsys or its legal beagles regarding the complaint, and could therefore not comment on it.
That doesn’t mean you can’t comment on it though… let’s hear your thoughts!
