Mojang Sued by Patent Troll Ric Richardson - Notch Considers Pulling Minecraft out of US

Uniloc, one of the many patent trolls lurking in the shadow of other people's success have sued Mojang for patent infringement. The dispute refers to the anti-piracy system used on the Pocket Edition of Minecraft for Android. Uniloc are also suing a collection of other gaming firms including EA, Gameloft and Halfbrick Studios for the same infringement.

The founder of Uniloc, Ric Richardson has a reputation for seeking well established companies to collect royalties for his 'inventions'. He's no stranger to suing big firms including Microsoft and now Electronic Arts.

At first, Ric was quite excited that his personal blog had received 8000 visitors since the lawsuit went public:

Pheww. The reaction to the Mojang story is just going through the roof. over 8,000 visitors just to my site.

But it quickly sank in that these visitors weren't there to support him but rather to show their support for Notch. After a bombardment of abuse, Ric was left with no choice but to take down the comments from his blog and remove his email address.

Using his blog, Ric tried to defend the lawsuit claiming that he'snot the inventor of the patent in question. Let's make one thing clear though, Ric is responsible for Uniloc and he's one of the principal individuals. It's his company and money will funnel through to him in one form or another. Deep down, Ric knows he's just another patent troll who's now feeling the full force of Notch's social followers.

Fighting back against the lawuit, Notch issued a statement on his Twitter page saying:

Software patents are plain evil. Innovation within software is basically free, and it's growing incredibly rapid. Patents only slow it down.

He later went on to say that he would consider pulling out of the US just to escape the ludicrous legal system:

I'd rather stop selling our games in the US than to continue be at the mercy of their messed up legal system.

He later backtracked saying that he would never let his fans down. Instead preferring to throw everything he's got to ensure that Ric and Uniloc would get nothing.. Too right!!

Unfortunately for them, they're suing us over a software patent. If needed, I will throw piles of money at making sure they don't get a cent.