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Lodsys launches patent suits against Gameloft, Gamevil, others

Controversial patent company adds more mobile devs to consolidated suit

The controversial patent holding firm Lodsys has laucnhed another wave of lawsuits against video game companies.

According to a report on Ars Technica, Lodsys is now suing a number of new mobile game companies, including Gameloft, Gamevil, BackFlip Studios, Pocket Gems and The Walt Disney Company. The lawsuits relate to technology used for in-app purchasing.

Lodsys is well known for its litigious tendencies among game developers. In June 2011, it started legal proceedings against seven App Store developers, before moving on to Rovio, EA, Take Two, Atari and Square Enix the following month. After a public plea from the companies involved, Apple intervened on their behalf.

However, Apple's involvement has not saved those developers from an expensive and drawn out legal process. All cases are still going through the same East Texas court, and many have now been consolidated into a single suit.

And the strategy has worked to a degree: while many companies continue to fight, the consolidated court docket shows that Take Two, Atari and Square Enix have all settled out of court with Lodsys.

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Matthew Handrahan

Editor-in-Chief

Matthew Handrahan joined GamesIndustry in 2011, bringing long-form feature-writing experience to the team as well as a deep understanding of the video game development business. He previously spent more than five years at award-winning magazine gamesTM.

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