Lodsys Goes to the Mattresses in Apple App Patent Dispute
Apple’s strongly worded letter warning Lodsys against harassing its developers didn’t stop the patent holding company from making good on its threats of litigation.
Claiming Cupertino had forced its hand, the company filed suit against seven iOS developers it claims are infringing its in-app purchasing IP: Combay, Iconfactory, Illusion Labs, Machael G. Karr, Quickoffice, Richard Shinderman, and Wulven Games. Though Apple might argue otherwise, none of these app makers are protected by its Lodsys patent license. And the company’s prepared to prove it.
[Apple’s] letter was very surprising as Apple and Lodsys were in confidential discussions and there was clearly disagreement on the interpretation of the license terms of Apple’s agreement,” Lodsys said in one of a series of blog posts on the matter. “Before, during and after these interactions, Lodsys has carefully considered this issue and consulted several legal experts to consider Apple’s claims. We stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party Developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys’ patents and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications. Developers relying on Apple’s letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple’s own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple’s responsibilities to them.
Further details and analysis at Florian Muellers FOSS Patents blog.