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Crazy Patent Troll Suing Devs For Posting Apps To Google Play (technobuffalo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the crossing-the-line dept.

Developer Austin Meyer is fighting back patent trolls after he was sued for putting his flight simulator app called X-Plane on Google Play. TechnoBuffalo reports: 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 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. It turns out the judge in that district may have a direct relationship with the prosecuting lawyer in many of these cases. The judge, Leonard Davis, is apparently known for almost never throwing out patent lawsuits. Meyer claims that his son, Bo Davis, is the lawyer representing many of these patent trolls.

5 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Suing Minecraft? by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Given MS owns it and has a one or two lawyers, patents, and a little available cash to defend itself that seems to be an odd target to pick. Given MS also has an app store I would think they will fight this to protect their interests; a win would be good for everyone. MS and good, two things you never thought you'd hear together on /.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    1. Re:Suing Minecraft? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not just Microsoft, but I would think Google would get involved with this. I can understand why the patent troll would go after the app developers instead of Google (take on the small fish and hope they're intimidated enough to give you money instead of challenging the giant shark to a biting contest). That said, Google should want to protect their developers from lawsuits like this. At the very least, they should want to make sure that no legal precedent was set saying that this patent troll "patented app stores."

      Let's get Apple in on this too. They have an app store also. Unite Apple, Google, and Microsoft to take the patent troll down. I'd pay to see that happen!

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    2. Re:Suing Minecraft? by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Given MS owns it and has a one or two lawyers, patents, and a little available cash to defend itself that seems to be an odd target to pick. Given MS also has an app store I would think they will fight this to protect their interests; a win would be good for everyone. MS and good, two things you never thought you'd hear together on /.

      My best friend is a lawyer and we've known each other since college, so I know way more about how the US legal system really works than most posters here. Anything and I do mean anything can happen in a court case, whether heard by a jury or a judge. You can ask RIM about that. They got a settlement offer over a patent suit from a troll and they thought the case was frivolous so the went to court and had to pay over a billion dollars in damages after losing. The settlement wanted half or less of that. So the troll here may be quite willing to gamble that Microsoft could lose and have to pay them a fortune or they'll just settle it to avoid the hassle and either way the troll wins big time. Worst case for them is some lost money for lawyers fees but if they have their own lawyer on staff, that's a sunk cost anyway. One of the downsides of having a friend who is a lawyer is that you come to understand that all lawyers believe the current US legal system is working perfectly as is and they don't see any problem with people like Austin Meyer having to spend a fortune just to defend themselves. They don't see it as wasted money just to get back to square one because even is Austin "wins" in court, he'll be out big time lawyer fees to do so and he won't actually make any money himself from "winning". Lawyers have zero problems with this. To them, even if Austin is financially destroyed by legal fees and he wins, then it was all worthwhile.

  2. Re:Judge Davis retired last year by mysidia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But now that he's retired, there's nothing that can be done, and either the problem has been resolved (in which case he was the problem) or it hasn't (in which case he wasn't).

    What do you mean? Retirement does not mean you are no longer subject to the possibility of disciplinary action by the ethics enforcement body.

    Also, if they figure out that his son was the prosecution on all these cases, and a clear conflict of interest wasn't even disclosed...:

    It can generate a cause for appeal, and possible charges against the former judge.

    That might even result in some settlements being cancelled and prior rulings overturned, Although, I doubt one judge and one lawyer were allowed to do THAT much damage...

    One of the big company defendants' investigation teams surely would have noticed any pattern like that, right?

  3. Re:Judge Davis retired last year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No. That one was served, and failed to show up in court and lost by default. Very different than receiving one of the troll threat letters.