UK Developers Quit US App Store Over Patent Fears

iamflimflam1 writes "The Guardian is running a story on how app developers in the UK are withdrawing from the U.S. app store over patent fears. 'The growth of patent lawsuits over apps raises serious issues for all the emerging smartphone platforms, because none of the principal companies involved — Apple, Google or Microsoft — can guarantee to protect developers from them. Even when the mobile OS developer has signed a patent licence — as Apple has with at least one company currently pursuing patent lawsuits — it is not clear that it has any legal standing to defend developers.' This follows a blog post from the iconfactory about the death of independent developers. Have the big corporations really won? What is the future for small teams and one-man-band developers?"

Comments

It has to get worse before it gets better

[Flipao]

The way things are, this is as good a start as any.

Re:It has to get worse before it gets better

[Mindcontrolled]

This is not a fault of patents per se. This is a fault of the US litigation system. Unregulated lawyer fees, which I agree are ridiculous, the possibility of forum shopping, so everyone ends up in Bumfuck, TX for their patent cases, non-technical judges that have no clue about the engineering aspects of a patent, jury trials, just to make sure that the deciding body has no clue about the matter at hand, and ridiculously overblown damages. The US patent system differs from the European one, but not so much as to hurt. What hurts is the difference in litigation. Over here in Europe I have seen small inventors going after global corporation over their patents - successful and on a budget. I have seen patent cases to the highest national court for a total cost in the low five figures. That won't kill a small business. Pushing the litigation costs before damages in the millions - that kills the small guys. Regulate your lawyers, guys.

Irony

[gilesjuk]

The irony that the US market is supposedly most free in the world yet patents are screwing it up.

Surely more jobs and growth are being stifled by them than saved by them?

Re:Irony

[elashish14]

The irony that the US market is supposedly most free in the world yet patents are screwing it up.

In America, freedom means 'freedom from government intervention.' What the translates to is slavery to private interests.

If I were given the choice, I'd much rather be subject to government control rather than private interests, seeing as I would have at least some voice against the government...

Surely more jobs and growth are being stifled by them than saved by them?

Both of these statements are true. Small businesses are muscled out and replaced with a cubicle in a large corporate tower. But a corporation can never do wrong in America, even if they spill oil all over the Gulf of Mexico, so people run to them anyways.

Re:Irony

[jo_ham]

BP is at least as American as it is British - the current BP was formed by the merger of two large corporations, one British the other American.

Also, nice racism there. Because no one but America can make something that won't fail and cause massive pollution... oh wait.

Re:Irony

[rsilvergun]

You only have those choices because the government broke up their monopolies. Ever hear the song Sixteen Tons? I sold my soul to the company store.

And we're mostly paying for wars to keep corporations happy. Meanwhile welfare makes up a small amount of money spent. But hey, don't let reality get in the way of a good right wing rant. Are you an astroturfer?

US nowadays

[cjcela]

Greed for power and money is crippling the US. Hope we realize how to stop this before we become a 3rd rank nation. Software patents, corrupted politicians, shortsighted MBAs, unscrupulous lawyers ... all of them are contributing to a quick degrade of business ethical values and to the loss of opportunities of the common man for the benefit of few. Sad state of affairs.

Re:Why are app stores their only option?

[Sique]

Thats as silly as it gets. If you were right, it would be immoral to build a house for shelter, just because someone else already had the idea to build a house. It would be illegal to make a cheese&bacon-sandwich just because someone else already made one. It's completely ok to build the umpteenth clone of Crush the Castle or Galaga, even if someone else already made one. You just shouldn't claim to be a creative game designer. And so I will my enjoy cheese&bacon-sandwich and continue to live in my house, well aware to be not the first one to ever do so.

Re:This tweet (FTFA) shows how screwed up it is.

[spire3661]

There are too many humans to allow the continued allocation of one idea to a person. We have too many eyes now for this system to provide benefit. Very few human ideas are both unique to that human and a benefit to mankind.

Re:This tweet (FTFA) shows how screwed up it is.

[peragrin]

how about MSFT's $15 per android device fee? is that good?

Also in software patents don't cover implementations but concept. therefore there is no way around and still meet spec.

Re:Prohibition of the brain

[russotto]

Why does this only seem to be an issue with mobile platforms

Because it turns out that if you add the limiting clause "on a mobile computing device", everything old becomes new again.