Apple To Publicly Address Patent Claims This Week
May 17, 2011
Apple is said to be actively investigating claims made on Friday by Lodsys, LLC, a patent holding company based in Marshall, Texas, according to The Guardian.
As reported previously, Lodsys is claiming its patents cover Apple’s in-app purchasing system. Strangely, however, the company hasn’t gone after Apple, but rather iOS developers.
Lodsys, according to legal papers, claims iOS developers are infringing on patent 10/732,102, which the company bought in 2004 from the inventor, who filed it in the 1990s, covering user interaction over a network.
Lodys’s solution is for each iOS developer who uses the in-app purchase system to give them 0.575 percent of U.S. revenue. Developers are also responsible for past usage.
They state on their website:
In the case of an Application doing an in-application upgrade (and only this scenario), Lodsys is seeking 0.575% of US revenue over for the period of the notice letter to the expiration of the patent, plus applicable past usage. So on an application that sells US$1m worth of sales in a year, the licensee would have an economic exposure of $5,750 per year.Apple is expected to publicly respond to Lodsys’ claims later this week, which is good. Hearing from Apple is essential to getting to the bottom of this situation. Until then, iOS developers aren't sure what to do next. We'll keep you updated on this story.
