Josh Ong
The suit was filed with the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, a district known for providing a favorable outcome for patent holders, Florian Mueller reports. Though iOS developers were the main targets of the suit, one Android developer was also listed in the filing.
Early this month, Lodsys sent legal complaints to a number of iOS developers accusing them of patent infringement. The letter gave the developers 21 days to license the company's in-app purchasing technology.
Lodsys' claim centers mainly around U.S. Patent No. 7222078, entitled ""Methods and Systems for Gathering Information from Units of a Commodity Across a Network." Though Apple has licensed the technology, Lodsys asserts that third-party developers aren't covered under that license.
After Apple's legal department actively investigated the infringement claims, the Cupertino, Calif., company sent a formal letter to Lodsys asking it to cease its legal threats against iOS developers. "Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the App Makers are protected by that license," Bruce Sewell, Apple's senior vice president and general counsel, wrote in the letter.
Lodsys noted Tuesday on its official blog that it "chose to move its litigation timing to an earlier date than originally planned, in response to Apple's threat, in order to preserve its legal options." The company has also offered a $1,000 payment to iOS developers if it turns out that Apple's existing license rights apply to app developers. However, Lodsys continues to dispute Apple's claim and has sent a "detailed legal position on the license interpretation issue" to the iPhone maker.
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42 Comments
Guess it's time now to see if Apple (and Google) will step in with more than a letter. I certainly expect them to. It did surprise me that Lodsys didn't drop the whole thing tho.
The most obnoxious thing about this (and there are several aspects from which to choose) is that Lodsys on its home page has this quote:
"I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work."
That's interesting, given that Lodsys didn't do any work at all. They are a troll that let iOS developers and Apple do all the work, then jump in trying to scrape profit off the work of others.
The most obnoxious thing about this (and there are several aspects from which to choose) is that Lodsys on its home page has this quote:
"I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work."
That's interesting, given that Lodsys didn't do any work at all. They are a troll that let iOS developers and Apple do all the work, then jump in trying to scrape profit off the work of others.
Not to mention- they didn't even design the patent in question- they bought it.
Given Apple's legal response- there is no doubt they are going to countersue Lodsys.
Did Google ever even respond?
Not to mention- they didn't even design the patent in question- they bought it.
Given Apple's legal response- there is no doubt they are going to countersue Lodsys.
Did Google ever even respond?
Not that I've seen. But it's only been just a few days since the first Android developers got dragged in. At least they should have had a heads-up that it probably was coming.
I see this failing like nobody's business, not because of anything to do with patents, but because they made the agreement that developers had 21 days to comply, then they broke their own (verbal, effectively) contract by filing early. That's got to be illegal on some level.