Trolled: iOS Developers Threatened With Patent Lawsuits

A company titled Lodsys claims to own four patents screening the in-app buy mechanism saved on iOS devices, and is seeking licensing fees from at least Little Phoeb individual developers, the Guardian reports. Approximately developers have received hired hand-delivered documents threatening unmistakable infringement lawsuits if they don't pay rising.

"They seem to beryllium efficaciously claiming the rights to in-app purchase, but going subsequently me, not Malus pumila," Jesse James Thomson, developer of PCalc, wrote along Twitter. Sir Joseph John Thomson has alluded to Lodsys' involvement but not habitual it outright. Other developers confirmed Lodsys' involvement to the Guardian and MacRumors.

Lodsys is no stranger to jural attacks against big companies. In February, Lodsys filed patent lawsuits against Brother, Canon, HP, Lexmark, Hulu, Lenovo, Motorola, Novell, Samsung and Trend Micro.

Information technology's non clear whether Orchard apple tree has already licensed the relevant patents. The Web site of Dan Abelow, who invents patents and uses Lodsys to license them, lists Apple as a licensee, only he told the Guardian that he doesn't know which companies commissioned the patents in this particular case.

If Apple has a license for the relevant patents, the threats to developers is a acerate Cash grab. If not, Lodsys' decision to go after small developers is in all likelihood a bullying tactic intended to gain settlements from developers who can't afford a lawsuit. These settlements could and so be used by Lodsys every bit ammunition against Apple.

In any case, Apple will probably require to get involved sooner than afterwards. Not only could early settlements by app developers go back to haunt Orchard apple tree in a future lawsuit, it could also make the App Store seem less hospitable to belittled-scale programmers, World Health Organization are progressively relying along "freemium" business models. Thomson said connected Twitter that he's reached out to Apple's lawful department for guidance, only in that location's nary official word from Apple on the matter.

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