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Lodsys Sues 7 iPhone Devs Over Patent Infringement Claims
Dachannien writes "Patently-O and Ars Technica report that Lodsys has filed suit [here's the complaint] in the Eastern District of Texas against seven iPhone developers, asserting that the defendants are infringing two patents. Apple had previously indicated their belief that all iPhone developers are protected by a licensing agreement that Apple had made with the patents' former assignee, Intellectual Ventures. But Lodsys insists that the defendants are nonetheless liable for infringement. Still an open question is whether Apple will go beyond the mailing of strongly worded letters in defending third-party iPhone devs."
They're filing in the Eastern District of Texas, you say? What a shock!
When someone says, "Any fool can see
They are also targeting Android developers. It's not a safe haven.
Err, before pronouncing doom and gloom upon all things Apple, you may want to think ahead a bit... this patent appears sufficiently broad enough so that Android and WP7 developers may well be next.
Personally, while Apple does need to get it in gear and provide as much aid as possible (can 'tortious interference' be a case here if Apple were indeed to sue Lodsys?), Microsoft and Google may *very* well want to get off their butts and at least start making moves to protect their own dev stables.
PS: Even worst-case, this would be a chilling effect only if your iPhone app included an in-app payment system.
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Android devs would be on the hook for this as well if it goes through. The patent basically covers any and all in-app purchasing. Lodsys has clearly stated the licensing Apple and Google have paid does not cover 3rd party developers.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
I hope that Apple will step up, but I'm not sure there is anything in the iOS developers agreement that requires them to do so or guarantees any kind of protection against this kind of thing.. If anyone knows of one I would like to see it.
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Lodsys Sues 7 iPhone Devs and 1 Andriod Dev Over Patent Infringement Claims..
Lodsys sues 7 app developers in East Texas, disagrees with Apple; Android also targeted
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
First, this is happening to Android developers as well. Second, although you're on the right track, IMO, defending third-party suits is really not that different from an out-of-court settlement to a lawsuit; it encourages other sleazy IP factories to sue app developers to get a quick payoff at Apple's/Google's expense.
If Apple and Google believe that their contracts with Lodsys grant rights to third-party app developers, then they should sue Lodsys for breach of contract, damage to their reputations (slander), and tortious interference. Between Apple and Google, it shouldn't be hard to thoroughly bury this patent troll company. Anything short of utterly burying them won't be enough of a deterrent to patent troll suits in the future.
Even better, because such suits would not be counter-suits (Lodsys isn't suing Apple or Google, AFAIK), they could be filed in a more friendly district, e.g. Northern California.
Just saying.
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The US patent system is badly broken, at least as far as software patents go. We all know that around here. Usually, the cases that make the tech news involve these Patent Trolls suing large companies (Apple, Google, MS), heck, even SCO v Red Hat. However, here we have an example of "the little guy" getting hurt by a software patent infringement case for an obvious patent.
This case may be a good example to put in front of Congress to show them how completely broken the current system. First, the inventor wasn't harmed by these "in app purchases", it's a patent holding company trolling. Second, the patent is obvious, overly broad and should never have been approved. Third, the patent in question shows the abuses of the current continuation system here in the US. And forth, it's Joe Sixpack getting sued! Nothing works up Congress and the media like an attack on the little guy / corporation.
Until Congress realizes just how goddamned toxic software patents are, there will be no such thing as a safe haven. I don't do a lot of development any more, but I'd be hesitant about getting into the game at all, at least for anything with wide distribution. I'm not even sure you could write hello.c any more without some patent troll trying to nail you with "a program that outputs the phrase 'hello world' through standard output".
Fucking ludicrous. How could the judiciary and the politicians let it get this bad?
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Great. Who actually shipped those files? Oh right, no one.
IANAL, however, the very first thing I'd do is move for immediate dismissal with prejudice on the basis that the Plaintiffs have failed to join indispensable parties (i.e. Apple) to the lawsuit. I don't see any way that Apple cannot be dragged into this suit and you just don't want a friend of the court brief from them.
Also, consider asking the judge to consolidate the cases so that you can pool your defenses.
And lastly, file immediate counterclaims for anything you can think of (vexatious litigation, harassment, extortion, barratry, perjury) so that they can't empty your pockets first and then just dismiss the case (w/o prejudice) and run away untouched. As long as you have counterclaims active Lodsys can't unilaterally end the case and leave you holding the bag for your legal expenses.
This case is far too much like someone finding something patented in MS Visual Studio.NET, and then suing application developers for using VS.NET to develop their own applications.
Of course, Apple should have already shown up for this just to prove that they're really not as Evil as many think them to be.
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Looks like a good opportunity for Apple to pretend it gives a $#! about it's users/developers. Any platform is only as good as the apps it has available. That's how Palm survived so long with crappy hardware and an even crappier OS. There was always an app (or thirteen) that did what you needed done. If Apple doesn't stand up for the one thing that makes an iP[ad|od|hone] worth having, then it might prove that the one and only iDevice-killer was Apple itself.