4 ms·
They were also dumb enough to sue EA, my bet is this goes away pretty quickly (at least for EA) http://www.scribd.com/doc/100637098/Uniloc-et-al-v-Electronic-A
by fleitz 14y ago
They were also dumb enough to sue EA, my bet is this goes away pretty quickly (at least for EA)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100637098/Uniloc-et-al-v-Electronic-Arts http://www.scribd.com/doc/100637098/Uniloc-et-al-v-Electroni...
A cursory reading of the claims explicitly outlined against Mojang makes me wonder if it's even a valid claim, they seem to be claiming the 'computer executable code' in claim 107 instead of a 'method'.
It also seems like there would be plenty of prior art to find computer code on an electronic device to prevent unauthorized access. I think the PDP-10 and UNIX would suffice such prior art.
- ivanvanderbyl 14y agoI was actually quite surprised to read this on HN, I once met Ric Richardson the founder of Uniloc shortly after he sued Microsoft for infringing a similar patent, and I usually laugh at anyone trying to enforce software patents but this time I would take it a lot more seriously.
- simonw 14y agoWhy would you take it a lot more seriously?
- DanBC 14y agoBecause the decision has flip-flopped a few times, but at the moment Microsoft has settled. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-05/microsoft-settles-fight-over-uniloc-anti-piracy-patent-1-.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-05/microsoft-settles-f...) MS has lawyers, and money, and time, and thus for them to lose is concerning. (Not saying anything about the applicability of this patent to Mojang.)
- ceejayoz 14y agoDefending a patent suit costs millions. Settling may simply have been cheaper, while still giving a big payday to the troll.