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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Uniloc sued Mojang in 2012, alleging that Minecraft Pocket Edition for Android infringed a patent related to software license protection. The case did not produce a court finding that Mojang infringed. The public debate became broader: Minecraft creator Markus Persson argued that software patents impede the sharing and reuse that drive innovation, while Uniloc founder Ric Richardson defended patents as protection against piracy. Persson’s criticism was about software patents—not intellectual property rights as a whole.
What did Uniloc allege against Mojang?
Uniloc USA, Inc. and Uniloc Luxembourg S.A. filed suit against Mojang AB on July 20, 2012, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The case was docketed as 6:12-cv-00470. The complaint named Minecraft Pocket Edition, the Android version of the game, and cited U.S. Patent No. 6,857,067.
As reported in the case record, the complaint described an application communicating with a server to check a license and prevent unauthorized use. That was Uniloc’s allegation; it was not a judicial finding about how Minecraft worked or whether Mojang was legally liable. The patent concerned preventing unauthorized access to electronic data. A later Patent Trial and Appeal Board description referred to license data on a portable licensing medium and a registration authority that verifies it. The patent’s description provides context for the claimed technology, but does not establish that Minecraft used it.
Why did Markus Persson call software patents “evil”?
Persson, Minecraft’s creator and Mojang’s founder, used the dispute to argue against software patents specifically. Game Informer quoted him saying: “Software patents are plain evil. Innovation within software is basically free, and it’s growing incredibly rapid. Patents only slow it down.”
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GamesBeat also reproduced a longer statement from Persson’s official blog: “There’s no way in hell you can convince me it’s beneficial for society not to share ideas. Ideas are free. They improve on old things, make them better, and this results in all of society being better. Sharing ideas is how we improve.” He went on to call software patents “counterproductive, evil, and costly.” These are Persson’s views about how software patents affect innovation, not a legal judgment that all intellectual property rights are evil.
How did Uniloc defend patent protection?
GamesBeat reported a contrasting response from Ric Richardson, identified as Uniloc’s founder. Richardson argued that licensing technology could help software companies limit piracy, asking why a company should object to paying royalties for technology that protects its own sales. He asserted that the technology stopped “up to a third” of a software company’s sales from being lost to piracy. That figure is Richardson’s claim as quoted by GamesBeat, not an independently established rate for piracy or a verified result of Uniloc’s technology.
The exchange reflects competing policy concerns rather than a settled factual answer. Patent rights can be defended as a way to reward and protect developers, while broad or uncertain software patent claims can raise concerns about reuse, incremental development, litigation expense, and the leverage a lawsuit can create. Those questions are distinct from whether a specific patent claim is valid and whether a particular product infringes it.
What happened to the patent and the lawsuit?
The patent review
In a separate proceeding, Mojang joined other game companies in petitioning for inter partes review of challenged claims of the same patent. On December 18, 2013, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board instituted review after finding a reasonable likelihood of success for some claims. Institution is a threshold decision to review claims; it is not a final ruling that the patent was invalid.
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The docket listing reports that the claims against Mojang were dismissed with prejudice on August 31, 2016, pursuant to a joint stipulation and motion. The available account does not disclose settlement terms or establish that a court decided infringement on the merits. The dismissal therefore should not be described as a merits victory for either side, and it does not itself resolve the validity of the patent claims.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the dispute show about software patents?
The case illustrates why a patent dispute can become a public argument about innovation without answering the legal questions at its center. Persson emphasized sharing ideas and the cumulative nature of software development. Richardson emphasized protection against piracy and the value of patented technology. Both framed policy positions; neither statement decides the legal scope or validity of the patent, or whether the accused game met its claims.
GamesBeat reported in July 2012 that Minecraft had sold more than 6.7 million PC units and that Uniloc had received infringement complaints from more than 73 companies over nearly a decade. Those are historical figures reported at the time, not current totals. The scale of the game and the number of companies mentioned helped give the controversy visibility, but neither figure establishes the merits of Uniloc’s claim against Mojang.
For readers asking whether you can put a price on an idea, this case offers no simple verdict. It records a clash between arguments for protecting technology and concerns that software patents may burden the exchange and adaptation of ideas. The lawsuit ended without the merits ruling needed to settle whether Mojang infringed.
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Sources
- GamesIndustry.biz: report on Uniloc’s complaint against Mojang
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board
- GamesBeat: Persson and Richardson’s statements, and historical figures
- Game Informer: Persson’s comments on software patents
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