A Lithuanian mobile and social gaming company is suing seven unidentified gamers for writing and posting software cheats that modify the gameplay of its Guns of Boom multiplayer first-person-shooter game. 

Perkins Coie attorneys are representing Vilnius, Lithuania-based UAB Game Insight in its suit over the John Does' cheats, which thousands of players have downloaded.

"Defendants develop, publish, and distribute cheat software that undermines this level playing field, threatens the integrity of the Guns of Boom player experience, and infringes on Game Insight's valuable intellectual property rights," wrote the Perkins Coie lawyers in a complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The software codes allow the mobile game users to shoot and move faster than other players, see through objects, steady their aim and buffer recoil on their guns. These cheats offer an unfair advantage not only to recreational gamers, but also for competitive players who participate in tournaments with prize pools totaling up to $500,000, according to the complaint. 

Game Insight asserts that the users have downloaded the various cheats between 300 and 62,000 times by distributing the software to websites such as GameGuardian and AutoSkillz.net. To access the cheat, users download the file from the sites to their phones and "operate the GameGuardian app and Guns of Boom in a parallel space" on the phone, which then runs a script for the cheat.

The company is suing the gamers for copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, trademark infringement, false designation of origin and California unfair competition.

"Defendants' cheats infringe Game Insight's copyrights in Guns of Boom by copying, reproducing, preparing derivative works from, and/or displaying Guns of Boom publicly without Game Insight's permission," the company's lawyers write in the complaint. 

Game Insight is seeking an order enjoining the defendants from continuing to produce the cheats and demanding that they destroy any copies of the game.

Despite the company's international location and the unknown origin of the Does, the Perkins Coie attorneys argue that the Northern District of California is the proper venue, because the game is available via the Apple App store and Google Play, which are operated by Apple Inc. and Google LLC, both headquartered in the district.

Britt Anderson and Andrew Klein of Perkins Coie's Palo Alto office, as well as William Rava and Jacob Dini in Seattle, are representing the gaming company. The attorneys were conferring with their client about commenting on the lawsuit at the time of publication.