Angry Birds Creator Rovio Sued By Patent Firm

A Texas-based patent firm is angry at Angry Birds.

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Lodsys filed an amended complaint against several major game makers, including Rovio, the makers of the popular Angry Birds

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Thursday, the complaint also names EA, Atari, Square Enix and Take-Two Interactive.

The complaint is based on four patents that Lodsys owns. The suit alleges that Finish-based Rovio was infringing U.S. Patent 7,620,565 with their game Angry Birds for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Lodsys claims they own the patent on the method used to buy new levels in the game.

The patent, filed by Daniel H. Abelow, is described as a network “that interacts with a user, gathers information from the user, communicates the information to the product’s vendor, and receives new pre-programmed interactions from the vendor for future interactions with the user.”

Other games names in the suit are EA's The Sims 3 for iPhone, Square Enix's Big Hit Baseball for iPhone and iPad, Atari's Greatest Hits for iPhone and iPad and Take-Two Interactive's 2K Sports NHL 2K11 for iPhone.

The company’s chief executive, Mikael Hed, told the Wall Street Journal, “We have not received any notification from Lodsys so I cannot comment on it.”

Last week, several app developerd began the process of withdrawing their products from U.S. markets for fear of being sued by patent firms, according to The Guardian.