Lodsys Adds Rovio, EA, Atari, Take-Two, Square Enix To App Store Dispute

Patent licensing firm Lodsys has amended its original lawsuit against a number of App Store developers, adding five new defendants to the case, including Electronic Arts and Angry Birds developer Rovio. Last month, Texas-based Lodsys revealed that it had sued a number of App Store developers over the implementation of an in-app upgrades model in their games, demanding a percentage of revenues made due to the use of a Lodsys' patent on the model. The company expressed at the time that it "has only one motivation: we want to get paid for our rights." It has now modified the complaint to include five new companies, each of which allegedly also infringes on Lodsys' patent, according to Foss Patents. Rovio's Angry Birds is now in the firing line, with the complaint noting, "Rovio makes, sells, uses, imports, and/or offers to sell infringing applications, including but not limited to Angry Birds for iPhone and Angry Birds for Android." Also added to the complaint is Electronic Arts' The Sims 3, Atari's Greatest Hits, Square Enix's Big Hit Baseball and Take-Two's 2K Sports NHL 2K11. Apple has already filed a motion to intervene on the legal proceedings, arguing, "Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys’ patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys."