Thanks to a truly daft move in the US to allow patent trolls to control software ideas, one of the biggest success stories in the app market could be bought to its knees.
Angry Birds Rovio has been sued by Lodsys which claims it has the patents’ which cover the methods Angry Birds uses to allow players to purchase new levels inside its mobile apps. Fudzilla understands that the threat by Lodsys to sue people who use its technology has prevented several European games developers launching their apps in the US.
The US patent system is different from the EU in that it allows software ideas to be patented. The move has lead to a new growth industry of “patent trolls” which simply demand payments after assessing intellectual property rights. Sadly the EU is considering following the idea because US patent trolls are leaning on it to “protect their ideas”.
The problem is that software patents are extremely wide and it does not matter if an idea is implemented in a different way you can still be nailed.
Lodsys could bring the App movement to its knees
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Nick Farell
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