Clicker Heroes dev Playsaurus has published a blog post detailing recent legal threats from GTX Corp, a company the dev describes as a patent troll.
Many of the widely known patent troll incidents involve targets like Nintendo or Ubisoft, so Playsarurus’ post sheds some light on the impact similar attacks can have on smaller developers as well. It’s Playsaurus’ hope that speaking about the issue will help it connect with other small companies facing a potential lawsuit over this same patent.
GTX Corp.’s complaint against Playsaurus accuses the developer of infringing on its patent by using “electronic tokens” within its games. The initial letter sent to the dev says that GTX Corp plans to file a lawsuit if Playsaurus doesn’t pay a $35,000 license fee for the alleged infringement.
The patent in question has been used in a number of similar claims in its lifetime, but Playsaurus’ response to the letter says that the way its games (and many, many others) use digital currency does not violate the patent since Clicker Heroes handles digital currency storage and purchasing on the client side rather than the server side. Furthermore, Playsaurus’ legal counsel outlines that games and websites have used the systems outlined in the patent since before the patent itself was filed.
The developer shared a copy of the letter sent to it by GTX Corp., its own response, and the lawsuit the company has threatened to file if Playsaurus doesn’t pay up in its blog post. The studio says its running theory is that GTX Corp is targeting smaller developers with lawsuits before the patent runs out in two years time since, in many cases, smaller developers don’t have the resources to survive the costs a lawsuit can drudge up.