Minecraft creator sued for patent infringement

Markus ‘Notch’ Persson reports via Twitter that the Swedish Minecraft developer Mojang is being sued by the American company Uniloc. Mojang allegedly infringed a Uniloc patent with the popular game.

Markus ‘Notch’ Persson reports via Twitter: “Step 1: Stand up. Step 2: Check email. Step 3: See us be sued for patent abuse. Step 4: Laugh.” The man who came up with the concept of Minecraft apparently isn’t concerned about the charges. The American Uniloc filed a lawsuit against Mojang. Persson posted a pdf of the complaint on his personal website. In the indictment, Uniloc alleges that Mojang abused patent 6,857,067, which Uniloc acquired in 2005 assigned received. The patent describes a ‘system and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data’.

The patent describes a method of communication between a wearable device and a license registration authority. According to Uniloc, the Android version of Minecraft abuses that patent because the game communicates with a server to check whether unauthorized use of the application is being made through such a license check. Notch states, however, that the game does not use the method described in the patent. In a blog post, the Swede goes deeper into the matter and stilt he that patents on software are ‘plain evil’. Notch believes that innovation within software should not be captured in patents. That would slow down innovation. It is not known when the case against Mojang will be heard. The case has been filed in a Texas court, home of Uniloc. It is striking that Uniloc calls the game ‘Mindcraft’ in the complaint.