Rovio Sued Over Angry Birds Patent Infringement

6:00 PM - July 22, 2011 - By Kevin Parrish - Source : FOSS Patents

Angry birds developer Rovio has been dragged into a lawsuit over patent infringement filed by Lodsys against eleven defendants.

Developer Rovio and its famed physics-based game Angry Birds has become one of the primary targets in a recent patent infringement lawsuit.

The complaint was originally filed by patent licensing firm Lodsys at the end of May, but was recently amended to remove Vietnamese company Wulven Games. In its place, five highly-popular (and highly lucrative) game companies were added including Rovio, Electronic Arts, Atari, Square Enix and Take-Two Interactive.

According to the lawsuit, Rovio is accused of infringing at least one of Lodsys' patents with Angry Birds for Apple's iOS and Google's Android OS.

"Defendant Rovio has infringed and continues to infringe, directly, indirectly, literally, under the doctrine of equivalents, contributorily, and/or through the inducement of others, one or more of the claims of the '565 patent," the lawsuit reads. "Rovio makes, sells, uses, imports, and/or offers to sell infringing applications, including but not limited to Angry Birds for iPhone and Angry Birds for Android, which infringe at least claim 27 of the '565 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271."

As for the other developers, the lawsuit covers The Sims 3 for the iPhone (EA), Atari's Greatest Hits for iPhone and Atari's Greatest Hits for iPad (Atari), Big Hit Baseball for iPhone and Big Hit Baseball for iPad (Square Enix), and 2K Sports NHL 2K11 for iPhone (Take-Two). The lawsuit also names Combay Inc., Iconfactory Inc., Illusion Labs, Michael G. Karr (Shovelmate), Quickoffice and Richard Shinderman as defendants, totaling eleven.

Lodsys began making legal waves in early May by filing patent infringement lawsuits against James Thomson, the developer behind Pcalc for iOS, and Computer LogicX, the company behind the Mix & Mash and Mix & Mash LITE apps for iOS.

"Our app, Mix & Mash, has the common model of a limited free, lite, version and a full version that contains all the features," said Computer LogicX owner Rob Gloess. "We were told that the button that users click on to upgrade the app, or rather link to the full version on the app store was in breach of US patent no 7222078, we couldn't believe it, the upgrade button!?!"

As MacRumors reports, the patent in question was filed back in December 2003 "as part of series of continuations on earlier patent applications dating back to 1992." The patent was originally owned by Dan Abelow who sold it along with his "extensive portfolio of patents" to Lodsys in 2004. Apple claims that its license to the Lodsys patents extends out to its third-part developers, giving them complete and undisputable freedom "to use the covered inventions without paying royalties or fearing lawsuits." But Lodsys disagrees, stating that Apple's claim of infallibility "has no discernible basis in law or fact."

And as seen with the latest amended lawsuit, Android developers aren't immune to the Lodsys legal sweep. FOSS Patents, the blog that discovered the amended lawsuit that now includes Angry Birds for iOS and Android, reports that Lodsys has issued a number of assertion letters to Android developers. "Google's silence and inactivity about this issue makes it likely that Lodsys will sue more Android developers if they don't pay," the blog reports.

Just another day, just another patent infringement lawsuit.

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Anonymous 07/23/2011 12:18 PM

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it'd be nice if i knew where to go look for screenshots or pictures so i could figure out what all this mess is really about lol

LORD_ORION 07/23/2011 12:32 PM

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Press a button, and you are offered to buy a product.

Seriously, this is a patent?

Seikent 07/23/2011 12:39 PM

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obsolete patents should be revoked t_t

illo 07/23/2011 12:45 PM

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Darkerson 07/23/2011 1:00 AM

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As much as I cant stand Rovio, I cant stand patent trolls even more, especially when they themselves dont even have their own product. Hopefully they end up getting their asses handed to them in court...

walter87 07/23/2011 1:09 AM

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Its it just me, or do these lawsuits only happen after they become a massive success?

mortsmi7 07/23/2011 1:10 AM

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I guess coding an update button for a phone is a bit more special than it is for a PC.

mortsmi7 07/23/2011 1:16 AM

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err, upgrade...

I'm sure someone else has a more generalized version of the same patent that could put Lodsys in their place.

Camikazi 07/23/2011 1:27 AM

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walter87 :
Its it just me, or do these lawsuits only happen after they become a massive success?

Well yea, you can't squeeze money out of poor companies now can you?

mrmike_49 07/23/2011 1:29 AM

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mortsmi7 :
err, upgrade...I'm sure someone else has a more generalized version of the same patent that could put Lodsys in their place.

yeah, maybe Apple - they did invent everything

t_wilson 07/23/2011 1:40 AM

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The U.S. patent system is a fucking joke.

jryan388 07/23/2011 1:58 AM

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Ever played the flash game "Upgrade Complete"? Imagine if every button in that game was infringing on this patent... lol...

mortsmi7 07/23/2011 2:00 AM

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I hope IBM gets their patent on "the process of using a computer to make money from a patent portfolio". I wonder how many trolls would disappear.

idono 07/23/2011 2:55 AM

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The hell!! patent No. 7222078 describes a freaking abstract and verry broad way of gathering information at a centralized location between devices.

This is getting out of hand. The US is not just intentionally crashing the economy but they are completly flooding the NA patent systems with useless patents that halts innovation. I say the US should be cutof from any kind of internationall buisness.

Anonymous 07/23/2011 3:24 AM

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I just patented buttons that allow users to submit their comments.

Pay Up Suckers.

sykozis 07/23/2011 3:28 AM

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mortsmi7 :
err, upgrade...I'm sure someone else has a more generalized version of the same patent that could put Lodsys in their place.

I'm sure Rambus or Apple has it somewhere in the folder of patents they've purchased or stolen....they just haven't found it yet...

alidan 07/23/2011 3:56 AM

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-1

walter87 :
Its it just me, or do these lawsuits only happen after they become a massive success?

well, think of it this way. you are a company with lets say, a patent on the upgrade button. are you going to scoure the internet for every instance of this patent infringement? no you have better s*** to do. but once it becomes well known it may hit your radar. im not defending them, im just telling you how it probably goes.

alidan 07/23/2011 3:59 AM

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mortsmi7 :
err, upgrade...I'm sure someone else has a more generalized version of the same patent that could put Lodsys in their place.

i do, its patent 1234234456343563 and it describes a place on the screen that you click with finger/pen/cursor/mouse/joystic/d**k/or nipple, and it make a noise/turns a color/ animates/ or stays the same, but in all cases, something happens.

im sueing everyone on the planet, for 10 cents per implantation and per product, so if you have it in your game or application 100 times you owe me 10$ per every copy sold.

and im sueing for past products too.

cloakster 07/23/2011 4:36 AM

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WTF, this is just ridiculous.

Blessedman 07/23/2011 4:40 AM

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Trolls like this are stifling game development for a developing platform. This is a shame and I hope a judge invalidates their claims and patent. Then I hope the owners of this company's children grow up and can't read.

stingstang 07/23/2011 4:59 AM

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mortsmi7 :
I hope IBM gets their patent on "the process of using a computer to make money from a patent portfolio". I wonder how many trolls would disappear.

None, because doing that would infringe on another patent by someone else.

bigbadjohnnyb76 07/23/2011 5:14 AM

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I'm patenting the word "infringement" tomorrow.

Anonymous 07/23/2011 5:32 AM

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let's facelift bar.... I sue them for facebar thing

xerroz 07/23/2011 5:53 AM

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saxplayingcompnerd 07/23/2011 6:19 AM

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I should patent the sensation of pleasure, therefore i can sue anyone who has ever enjoyed anything.

salimbest83 07/23/2011 12:32 PM

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wtf is goind on with this patent thing.
later got patent " using finger to typing or touching to input any data or information on whatever ass.."

mlopinto2k1 07/23/2011 1:48 PM

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This comment is patented. Beware, patent infringement will land your ass in court with hefty lawyer fees. I warned you.

shqtth 07/23/2011 3:06 PM

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Staples patented the Easy button

Seriously, a company who does not product a product or have intent to produce a product using their patent, should have the patent revoked, unless the patent is licenced to a company who produces a product on the companys behalf.

A lot of companies just own patents to keep other companies from developing a product, and the company owning the patent will never product a product or care too. Just to mess up progress.

shqtth 07/23/2011 3:09 PM

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all shareware is based on this method, and share ware has been around forever, even the days before the internet when the shareware game came on floppy.

Some shareware had a link to dialup or fax a request to the developer to unlock the full version.

So uses where used by other people even before this patent came into effect.

hoofhearted 07/23/2011 3:16 PM

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-1

I patented the use of the letters a through z and the digits 0 through 9 in any public or private forum where comments and discussions can be made with their use.

chumly 07/23/2011 7:02 PM

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Upgrayedd is a pimp, and character in the movie 'Idiocracy', a 2006 comedy by Mike Judge.

Upgrayedd spells his name U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D. The two D's are for a "double-dose of pimpin".
If I don't get Upgrayedd his money, he's going to come lookin' for me.