Lodsys Responds to Controversy Over Lawsuit Threats

[VulchR]

As a scientists committed to open IP rights, I find this kind of patent trolling wholly objectionable. If their case fails, Lodsys should be made to pay every dime of taxpayer money spent hearing their case and also all the bills of the defendants.

Actually, I'd like to see patent disputes settled on lost business only - namely, patents should be use 'em or lose 'em. If the patent holder does not sell or use the patented invention, no damages should be awarded.

Besides, I though it was impossible to patent an algorithm - or am I wrong about this?

 

[jclardy]

Wait, so Apple licences their "patent" for their in-app purchase SDK which they do not even use in their own applications but they want every individual developer to pay also?

I don't see why Apple needs to license it in that case...

Sounds like they are just trying to double dip here. Apple please smack them down.

EDIT: Their licensing terms aren't ridiculous, but if Apple already has an agreement wouldn't they already be paying a percentage of the 30% that they are already taking off each IAP? Still sounds like a double dip to me.

 

[cadillac1234]

YAY for US IP and patent laws.

Thank God the government is going even further to strengthen them

 

[batchtaster]

What a crock.

 

[gnasher729]

Wait, so Apple licences their "patent" for their in-app purchase SDK which they do not even use in their own applications but they want every individual developer to pay also?

I don't see why Apple needs to license it in that case...

Sounds like they are just trying to double dip here. Apple please smack them down.

EDIT: Their licensing terms aren't ridiculous, but if Apple already has an agreement wouldn't they already be paying a percentage of the 30% that they are already taking off each IAP? Still sounds like a double dip to me.

You don't know what Apple's license terms are. The problem with patent lawsuits is that they are much more expensive for the defendant than for the plaintiff. Lodsys likely said to Apple "license this patent for X dollars, or we sue you" and Apple calculated that defending themselves in court would cost Y dollars, even if they win, with Y being much greater than X.

 

[veempiire]

karma police

arrest these trolls..

 

[jonnymo5]

The patent system is totally broken and never really worked for software anyway. So if they can't have an upgrade button how about a "Snarzzle" switch that allows you to snarzzle to the paid version?

I just invented that and everyone is free to use it.

 

[shartypants]

Instead of calling it an "Upgrade" developers should just call them "purchase of additional features" or something like that. How in the world can a patent cover this?? Apple really needs to make some kind of official statement on this.

 

[damage00]

I should go back in time and patent the wheel. I'd be rich.

You can't. I'm applying for "Device to manipulate time" along with "Method and Procedure for filing patents of future devices using time manipulation".

Just for grins, my first use of these patents will be to file for "Printed letters, numbers or symbols on buttons or keys to indicate purpose or function".

I wish patent law worked more like copyright law and required proof of "first use".

 

[Ted13]

Apple legal needs to make a statement and do it soon.

 

[GQB]

From their About page:

"I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work." -Thomas Edison

That's funny. They bought the patents from one company that had bought the patents from another company that bought the patents from the guy that actually did the work. I guess that is a lot like Thomas Edison though, isn't it?

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, most of Edison's inventions came from employees other than him who 'actually did the work.'
And Edison was part of the movie cartel that tried to tie up the entire soup-to-nuts movie production/distribution/exhibition chain.
They did, however, fail.

 

[cooldaddybeck]

While death threats are "seriously uncool", the Lodsys revenue model is uncool as well. They have every right to enforce patents they own, whether or not they are considered bogus or not. If they are bogus/obvious, they will not hold up in court.

However, I have respect for people who make a living by actually doing something. Loading patents into a corporate shell just to collect on them is a bit queer in my opinion. Of course, if I held those patents I would try to collect on them (although I probably wouldn't harass individual developers...).

 

[Reason077]

0.575% of revenue seems like a more than fair price for the use of such a useful invention.

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

Looks like Lodsys has been busy trying to claim some big players are also infringing on this and other patents. Here is a link to an article about it, which links on to the responses. These responses may be of use to some of the iOS developers being targeted. Most of the companies being targeted are arguing that the patents are invalid.

I quickly skimmed over the patent myself and it appears to me the patent they are trying to impose has nothing to do with an upgrade button.

 

[beangibbs]

I do like them slightly better for using the phrase "seriously uncool" in response to death threats.

You've got to put your opinion of their business aside and respect that.

No...no I don't.
In fact, it makes them seem much less professional, and just trying to cozy up to the reader to get them on the Lodsys side of things.


No, I don't like them slightly better at all for that cute little remark.

 

[cwt1nospam]

Don't blame the patent trolls for a broken patent system. Could have been fixed long ago but no one has had the political scrotum to do so. So lets enjoy the histrionics its after all so much fun watching as well as paying for it.

Do blame the patent trolls just as you would and should blame the Corporations that aren't paying taxes: they lobby to make the rules to benefit themselves at the expense of the rest of the country. Political "scrotum" belongs to those who hire the lobbyists and so does responsibility for the results.

 

[JayMBP]

Agreed, this is the true scandal here. Patents should only be awarded if they are (1) none trivial and (2) the patent holder creates a product that uses is within reasonable time

Also: the in-app purchase was a known feature since a long time. Patent holders that are aware of patent infringement shouldn't be allowed to wait for years too maximize their profits, once they know about the violation they should act right away (in reasonable time) or shut up.

The current system makes it to easy for patent trolls to buy patents that are not used for anything, wait until they are successfully used in many many places and than ask for big money for things they were not able to deliver.

Lodsys claims that Apple licensed the technology for the app purchase in a way that does not cover developers using the API from APPLE ... somehow hard to believe that Apple would do it that way.

How does it work in general, if someone licenses a technique and uses it in a library that is used by others? Does than really everyone who writes code against that API license it again?

The problem with law is that you have to give definition to each and every term it contains. We, mac users, are aware of the in-app purchase for a long time. But my parents, who are in their 60s and not very involved in the latest stuff have no idea about it. Just because app store is a hot cake doesn't define it that it has made aware to the patent holder, so such term would be very difficult to define and enforce. Patent holders could simply fight back with "it came to their attention lately that their patented rights are being violated" and the court will have to side with them.

And I don't agree that you have to be able to market your idea in order to file a patent. This could result that only big companies are capable of patenting and therefore limit innovation. And by going this way, only big companies with capital will benefit from it. Say an idea is great but the inventor could not have enough capital to make it to achieve economy of scale. The big company would simply pick up the idea, patent it and make a lot of money off it because they had the capital to pull it off.

Patent system, as it's set up today is stupid. But there are billions of dollars worth of assets under current system. A reform to it could cause catastrophic reaction in the market if not taken seriously on every aspect.

 

[ersatzplanet]

Here's a plan...

The developers should change the in app button to go to a page of their own on their own website that has a button that will go to the Apple website to get the upgrade. This way the button in app technically DOESN'T provide the in app upgrade, it just goes to a website. Shouldn't that work?

 

[SmetsysOcisc497]

I guess it's a living!

Seems we can patent just about everything so I went ahead a submitted a patent for the process of cellular mitosis. From now on, every man woman and child who wish to to use cell division as means to stay alive will have to pay me $0.00987%. That is for very cell they decide to devide in their body. The parent is retroactive to the beginning of life on earth. Although the body itself has payed licensing for cell division, it is really up to the mind inhabitting the body to pay for these services. You may send your payments to mey address. This includes you people of Lodsys, LLC.

 

[iCrizzo]

These guys are patent trolls that are trying to double dip. Lodsys claims it is like a hotel owner and a land owner and the land owner getting sued for something that happened in the hotel. But they are wrong Apple is the land and hotel owner!!


Look they put up a blog and then closed all comments. SMH.

 

[840quadra]

As they say, it is easier to make money in Litigation, than by innovation here in the U.S. Why be resourceful and make a business out of something just to Get sued, when you can just sue people making businesses / products, and earn more?

 

[tasslehawf]

This problem is a perception issue. If developers BELIEVE that they will be sued if they use IAP then it will either stop using IAP (which is a revenue stream for Apple) or stop developing on the platform all together. And it could stop new developers from starting iOS development.

 

[juicedropsdeuce]

Has Apple made a statement regarding this? Could they also sue Lodsys for taking their license fee even though Lodsys did not feel Apply was responsible for paying it?

Apple isn't going to get involved. This only affects a couple small time devs, it's hardly worth the trouble. Their apps probably suck anyways.

 

[gavinfabl]

It's scandalous.

Odd that the 21 days notice lines up perfectly with the Apple Developer conference. And if Apple already license it, then this is pure greed and nonsense.

They are after the publicity and definitely are rogues. But that's the legal system for you.

 

[Andronicus]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Lodsys is lousy & seriously uncool.