Back in May, 2011, a number of small Apple developers using Apple’s in-app payment system received a legal complaint from Lodsys, threatening a lawsuit if the developer didn’t agree to license a specific Lodsys patent.
Within months, that brought a legal challenge by Apple, which saw a clear threat to its ecosystem. Apple had already paid to license Lodsys patents when they were in the hands of an earlier owner—Intellectual Ventures. So Apple went to court, arguing that Lodsys can’t demand additional payments by threatening iOS developers.
Now, after two years of litigation, it’s back to square one. The East Texas judge overseeing Lodsys’ systematic patent attack on app developers has refused to even consider Apple’s motion. Instead, he allowed the patent-holding company to settle all its cases—and then dismissed Apple’s motion as moot. By doing so, US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap—who has inherited the patent-happy East Texas court that once belonged to patent-troll favorite T. John Ward—has enabled Lodsys to threaten developers for months, and perhaps even years, to come.
This is infuriating.
The problem seems to be that all of the iOS developers mentioned in Apple’s complaint have, quite understandably, settled with Lodsys.
Judge Gilstrap ruled that Apple’s motion only applied to the seven defendants in the case. If they were out, the case was done. He ignored the Apple and developer arguments about the widespread nature of Lodsys’ campaign, declining to see any broader issue.
While Apple’s legal challenges continue, Lodsys continues to sue developers. In the meantime, Lodsys is getting countersued by companies they have pursued, such as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
Lodsys had demanded Stewart pay $20,000—$5,000 for each of its iPad apps. Instead, Stewart sued Lodsys in Wisconsin, where Lodsys CEO Mark Small lives. (Lodsys’ official office, like so many patent-holding companies, is just an office suite in Marshall, Texas.)
Despicible situation.
Hate this. I mean, Apple licenses from them and iOS developers use Apple’s payment system. Apple should be able to intervene on behalf of all developers that are sued and will be sued in the future.
Apple could simply sue to invalidate the patent now. They could also provide indie devs with legal assistance too.
If the license Apple has taken from Lodsys doesn’t extend to IAP for all developers, I hope Apple stops paying for the license.
They should also either sue Lodsys to remove this patent if they think they can invalidate it, or re-negotiate their license so that it does cover their developer community.
If I could only paint a picture of how utterly corrupt the East Texas law enforcement and judicial system is… so bad.
Apple should back just ONE of their third party developers with financial and legal aid to have actually and finally ONE case in which Lodsys has to go all the way to the end instead of scaring small developers into (currently) very small license payments.
Everyone is talking how Lodsys would loose a case against a small developer, yet none could ever prove it due to the immense financial cost of it.
Apple has the money and the know how – please come and help your developers directly.
I love that Martha Stewart’s company is going after them. Maybe Apple is working with MSOO in this? We can’t know all the details of what’s going on, of course. Maybe after it’s all played out we’ll find out more.
It’s otherwise a terrible situation.
One of the most interesting and galling parts of this story is the answer to why the other judge can’t here the Lodsys cases. The last paragraph:
“Lodsys can be sure it will continue to draw Judge Gilstrap as long as it files its cases in Marshall, Texas. The other judge who considers patent cases filed there is US District Judge Leonard Davis, but since Judge Davis’ son William “Bo” Davis is Lodsys’ lawyer, the company’s cases will all be redirected to Gilstrap.”
I wonder why this court is so friendly to patent trolls? Obviously Judge Davis has a conflict of interest. Someone should argue that Gilstrap does, too. I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know anything about the relationship between the Davis and Gilstrap families, but if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a couple of good-ole-boys looking out for a shyster son.