'Minecraft' developer sued over Android patent infringement

Minecraft is being sued for patent infringement by a tech company that can't spell Minecraft.

Minecraft developer Mojang is being sued for alleged patent infringement in the development of the Android version of the popular game, Eurogamer reports.

The lawsuit is being filed by Luxembourg-based Uniloc, a group which specializes in copy protection technology and has a history of suing small companies on the basis of patents.

Uniloc claims it is the exclusive license-holder of patent '067, a "system and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data," said to be infringed upon in the Android title. As stated in the lawsuit, the company claims Mojang is infringing on their patent "by or through making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing Android based applications for use on cellular phones and/or tablet devices that require communication with a server to perform a license check to prevent the unauthorized use of said application, including, but not limited to, Mindcraft".

The full suit is published online by game developer Markus "Notch" Persson, including the misspelling of Minecraft. Uniloc hopes for a trial by jury.

In response to the news, Notch took to his Twitter account to confirm the studio will not be threatened so easily.

"Unfortunately for them, they're suing us over a software patent. If needed, I will throw piles of money at making sure they don't get a cent."

Uniloc is also filing claims against Halfbrick, the studio behind Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Gameloft, Square Enix, X-Plane creator Laminar Research, and Electronic Arts.

Minecraft was made available for Android devices in 2011. So far its XBLA counterpart has sold over 3 million copies, while the game has sold over 1 million copies on mobile devices.