Playsaurus, the builders behind Clicker Heroes, have been threatened with authorized motion by an organization claiming to carry a patent for using “electronic tokens.” GTX Corp say that Clicker Heroes infringes on that patent, and are threatening a lawsuit if Playsaurus don’t pay a $35,000 license charge.
Thomas Wolfley, CEO of Playsaurus, says that the group is “getting shaken down by patent trolls for using ‘virtual currency’ in our game.”
He says “I believe their claims are completely meritless and their behavior to be abusive and terribly unethical. As I am a major owner of Playsaurus I see this as a personal attack, and the cost in my own time and well-being has already been significant and draining. It is a shame that the United States legal system can’t provide a quick and easy way for us to punish them for these actions.”
Various corporations have tried to take authorized motion concerning the patent, together with in a 2009 lawsuit towards corporations together with Amazon and Google. That case was settled. Miguel Bombach, Wolfley’s lawyer, mentioned in a return letter to GTX Corp that “You cannot now take that same patent and, a decade later, try to extract more money against developers who list their games on the Apple and Google store. Your attempted double-dipping is inappropriate.”
Wolfley believes GTX Corp are focusing on his firm and different small builders with out the assets crucial to simply combat patent claims.
The upcoming Clicker Heroes 2 will drop the previous game’s free-to-play model, attributable to “ethical reasons” together with gamers dropping 1000’s of {dollars} on in-game foreign money.
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