Crazy patent troll suing devs for posting apps to Google Play
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/06/07/x-plane-flight-simulator-patent-troll-uniloc/
Patent trolls have been a thorn in the side of the tech
industry for as long as we can remember, claiming ownership
over general ideas like Wi-Fi or podcasts and then suing
anyone who uses that technology. Now one developer is fighting
back after he was sued for putting his flight simulator app on
Google Play. Austin Meyer is the developer behind X-Plane. A
few years ago, he uploaded the app to the Google Play Store
and was very unexpectedly hit with a lawsuit from Uniloc in
2012. The firm claims it patented the idea behind the app
market. That's right, Uniloc isn't going after the Meyer for
making a flight simulator; it's going after any company that
uses Google Play. It's already targeted a bunch of other
popular apps, including Minecraft. So Meyer did a bit of
digging and discovered a few pretty shocking details. We
already knew that the vast majority of patent lawsuits happen
in Eastern Texas, even if the specific case has no relation to
that region. Now we may know why.
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--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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