Despite a letter from Apple lawyers last week stating that its licensing agreements protected iOS app developers, Lodsys is moving forward with its lawsuits against developers for patent infringement.
Lodsys owns four patents that it claims app developers must pay to use, and in a series of blog posts today, Lodsys outlined its plans to continue its legal efforts to obtain those payments.
Lodsys disputes Apple’s claims that agreements between the two companies cover the third party developers building iOS apps. While the company notes that Apple’s defense of developers had a “very positive reaction” in the press and by developers (duh), it warns that “Developers relying on Apple’s letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple’s own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple’s responsibilities to them.”
Although Lodsys had initially given developers 21 days to respond to its legal threats, it went ahead today and filed lawsuits against developers, saying that it opted to “move its litigation timing to an earlier date than originally planned, in response to Apple’s threat, in order to preserve its legal options.”
in an attempt to demonstrate that it’s willing to put its money where its mouth is, Lodsys says that it will pay $1000 to any developer to whom it has sent an infringement notice if it turns out that the company’s claims are baseless. Although Macrumors interprets this as a sign the company is confident that it will prevail in court, it could be seen as another grandstanding effort.
Regardless, the lawsuits are a serious matter and as it appears that the legal threats have spread from iOS to Android developers, they could stifle innovation and development on mobile platforms, particularly if third party developers have to shell out the money to pay to use the technology to which Lodsys holds the patents.
