On May 13th, several developers received legal notices from Lodsys saying they had 21 days to respond or face legal action. Lodsys claimed they own patents covering in-app purchases (IAP) and offered a licensing deal where they would take 0.575% of the application revenue in return for the developers being able to use IAP within their apps. Several of the developers affected appealed to Apple Computer, while others removed IAP from their apps and all worried that they would have to pay to avoid a costly and time-consuming lawsuit.
It took a little longer than most folks wanted, but Apple did respond, and they responded forcefully in defense of the developers. The first paragraph of the letter states clearly Apple’s position on the matter and what it plans to do.
Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license. There is no basis for Lodsys’ infringement allegations against Apple’s App Makers. Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.
Apple’s letter goes on to say that because the company has licensed Lodsys’ patents, it is “... entitled to offer these licensed products and services to its customers and business partners, who, in turn, have the right to use them.” Apple then uses the examples Lodsys used in the letters it sent out to show the developers are using Apple’s hardware, software, iOS, servers, and interface to provide IAP in their apps. In other words, because Apple has licensed the patents and the developers are using Apple technology, then they’re covered by Apple’s licenses.
Even if you aren’t normally interested in reading legalese, I do recommend reading the entire letter.
Lodsys has not responded to Apple’s letter yet, but has answered questions on their blog rather than directly with the press. Also interesting to note is that Lodsys has targeted Android developers with the same patent infringement notices. Since Google likely has licenses to the same patents Apple does, they will probably want to respond as well.
Via [CNET and MacWorld]
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