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Lodsys Now Suing EA, Atari, Rovio and More
An anonymous reader writes "Patent troll Lodsys has now amended its original complaint against iOS and Android developers to include some big name defendants of infringing upon its patent that allegedly relates to in-app purchasing. The new defendants include EA, Atari, Rovio and more."
Actually companies like Lodsys are doing a great job of raising awareness about the weaknesses of the current system. It's great to hear that they're going after big name companies with lobbying power, rather than hurting small businesses.
Yeah... my small company is being hit by a troll based out of the Eastern District right now. It will likely drive us out of business like many others small (US based) businesses. Our situation is a bit interesting in that the patent being used to stop us from doing business applies only to a small portion of our products that just happen to compete head-on with a much larger company in a very specific industry.
The patent is extremely broad/obvious/talks-in-circles, but the cost to defend ourselves will pretty much wipe us out financially.
We suspect the troll going after us was hired by one of our larger competitors so that our products don't have continued success and cut into the larger company's business. The *really* frustrating part is that our competitor doesn't make the same products as us. Our customer uses our production/solution over our competitor's products because our products are better/cheaper/etc... however, when we're gone, they (the customer) will have no choice but to go with our competitors inferior products.
We're not happy about it. Our customer isn't happy about it. And soon, about a dozen US workers will be added to the jobless pool. Another win for the lawyers and the USPTO.