Lodsys has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in East Texas against the very six companies — including “The New York Times” — who previously filed declaratory judgment actions against Lodsys in other jurisdictions, reports “FOSS Patents” (http://macte.ch/19F8p), a web site that covers software patent news and issues.
Last month Apple went to court against Lodsys, one of several so-called “patent trolls” that have been filing infringement suits against developers too small and poor to pay the legal fees it costs to fight them, notes “Fortune” (http://macte.ch/WuXTA). The patents in the iOS brouhaha were two that Apple claims it had already licensed on behalf of its developers.
In May Lodsys filed suit against seven developers for patent infringement in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The patent holding firm has been targeting small iOS developers with notices of patent infringement for providing in-app purchase and/or Apple App Store purchase links within their apps.
The company said developers had to obtain a license within 21 days or face the prospect of a lawsuit. Lodsys has been criticized by some for targeting app and website publishers instead of Apple itself.
On May 22, Apple’s chief lawyer Bruce Sewell announced that Apple’s license to the Lodsys patents gave Apple’s third party developers complete and “undisputable” freedom to use the covered inventions without paying royalties or fearing lawsuits.
“Apple Inc. hereby respectfully moves to intervene as a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff in the above-captioned action brought by plaintiff Lodsys, LLC against seven software application developers for allegedly infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 7,222,078 and 7,620,565,” the company said in its June motion. “Apple seeks to intervene because it is expressly licensed to provide to the Developers products and services that embody the patents in suit, free from claims of infringement of those patents.”
Today’s filing is the fourth infringement lawsuit filed by Lodsys and takes the number of defendants up to 33, notes “FOSS Patents.”
— Dennis Sellers