Patent Violation - Angry Birds Creator Defamed

With the development of technology, it is also quite true that instability has also risen in the market. Especially, technology where creativity has an equal contribution, credits and responsibility gets mixed up quite a lot. A recent example could be seen when the popular mobile game - Angry Birds creator, Rovio, was sued by Lodsys for patent violations. The claim on which the legal action was based was that Rovio’s Finnish company had violated important patent rules regarding the purchase in to the higher levels of the game. The game being quite popular, so much so that people generally download it more than a million times per day, naturally generated quite a value with these new levels.

What is ‘Angry Birds’?

The game is a very common name in the mobile gaming market. It is quite possibly the most popular mobile game that is downloaded by gaming enthusiasts. ‘Angry Birds’ definitely started as a mobile game, however, with the monstrous response that it generated over the time, Rovio had already started putting plans in to action to get the game in to a wider market. Browsers and consoles based on the game have already been launched. The next course of action was an animation movie based on the game and an IPO.

Effect of the Patent Infringement Case on ‘Angry Birds’

Lodsys has filed a patent violations case against Rovio and the Finnish company currently marketing ‘Angry Birds’. The case is based on the structure of the U.S. patents claims. This system allows for a protection against U.S. game developers and puts a preventive strain on their European counterparts that want to launch their software in the U.S. This will affect mostly all areas of Rovio’s plans of extending the ‘Angry Birds’ project. Also, it will have a broader but definite effect on all the existing European game and software developers with their projects launched in US.

The Lodsys History

This is not the first patent infringement case that Lodsys has filed. In fact, the company has quite a history with such claims and related cases. The most talked about of these cases is the violations case that the company had launched against seven iOS developers that has now even included Apple in to the confusion. The company concerned came forward last month in defence of its developers, claiming that the company’s patent claims also protect its programmers and developers. Apple too, makes a similar claim that their patents provide protection to their developers. However, Lodsys continues to differ on this count.

The Future

These patent suits will continue to exist since they in themselves have become a power play of huge amounts of money. In fact, Lodsys is absolutely not the only player in this field. Further examples include the Impulse Technology vs. Microsoft’s Kinect patent violations case, inclusive of Xbox 360 and Electronic Arts too. With the game and software field fraught with patent violation cases, the Android and Smartphones market will not be lagging far behind to get caught in such mess.