Patent troll company, Lodsys, has won at least a small court victory. U.S. District Judge Rodeny Gilstrap, the East Texas judge overseeing Lodsys’ systematic patent attack on app developers, has refused to even consider Apple’s motion in the case, reports “ArsTechnica” (http://tinyurl.com/pxhffe2). Instead, he allowed the patent-holding company to settle all its cases — and then dismissed Apple’s motion as moot.
By doing so, Gilstrap “has enabled Lodsys to threaten developers for months, and perhaps even years, to come,” says “ArsTechnica.” In 2011 Lodsys sued some iOS developers for using in-app purchasing systems that it claims violates patents it owns. The patent holding firm targeted small iOS developers with notices of patent infringement for providing in-app purchase and/or Apple App Store purchase links within their apps.
Apple’s legal department came to the defense of iOS app developers with a letter to Lodsys regarding its patent dispute with app developers. In the letter to Lodsys, Bruce Sewell, Apple senior vice president and general counsel said:
“Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the App Makers are protected by that license. Thus the technology that is targeted in your notice letters is technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents to offer to Apple’s App Makers … These licensed products and services enable Apple’s App Makers to communicate with end users through the use of Apple’s own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple’s App Store. Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys’ patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys.
