Developers band together to fight Lodsys if necessary

My day job is linked with the legal world, and let me tell you, despite Apple's letter to Lodsys, what happens next is anybody's guess. Apple can claim developers are protected, but those claims haven't been proven before a judge, and Apple doesn't have an indemnity clause in their contracts with developers that protect them in situations like this (I'm sure Apple is scrambling to get that together right now, however).

If Lodsys wishes to proceed, they indeed can follow through on their threats and sue the individual developers. Apple will most likely step up and figure out how to force the courts to turn the attention onto themselves, or at least provide counsel for the targeted devs.

Until something has been settled once and for all, I think its wise for these devs to ban together and figure out a "what if" strategy in case things get worse. You'd be stupid not to.

Worse than Lodsys, MacroSolve sues little app developers without advance warning

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/05/worse-than-lodsys-macrosolves-sues.html

Yeah there was never going to be any lawsuit from Lodsys so this banding together is not necessary. What happened was- the folks behind Lodsys had these old, broad patents that were about to expire and happened to be part of a massive portfolio Apple was licensed to. That company put together a super shoddy website and a guy (Mark Small) in an office in patent crazy East Texas and then sent out these silly letters to devs. The hope was a quick buck for zero effort. It was a lottery ticket hedge.

And now that Apple has rightfully put the smack down on this pointless effort they will quietly go away and never be heard from again as their patents expire. My only hope is that the next time a real patent troll with deeper pockets decides to go after devs directly Apple's response will be swifter and harsher. As a wise man once said, "it's not about the money- it's about sending a message."

isn't securing your own counsel a little premature? I think theses are the likely outcomes

1) lodsys backs down (via court or otherwise) and everyone's happy
2) lodsys wins and Apple re-negotiates their license to cover developers use of the API or apple reduces their take of in app sales to 29.4% (lodsys wants .00574%) to account for lodsys' cut.

Apple may not have explicitly stated they will "cover" devs costs, but they will (they will not tarnish their image by leaving devs out to hang -bad PR and bad business - dev's used the API out of good faith)

In a way, Apple is already covering legal costs. If Apple concedes/loses in court, what legal grounds do developers have.. presumably it will have been established that devs are liable if Apple's argument is determined to be without merit.

i think lodsys know's they're on shaky ground, .6 of a percent is too low. lodsys is hoping for a few bites - gravy. I was listening to a podcast with Arment of Instapaper.. he said he'd most likely "just pay" because a legal fight would cost him way more than $6k/MILLION. Since Apple's responded, Lodsys is obligated to respond - and their lawyers cost as much as Apples.

there won't be any lawsuits. It's pretty obvious what Lodsys was trying to do. They wrongly figured that they would send letters to a few of the bigger developers and scare them into quietly agreeing to pay the undeserved license fee.

Instead, the developers got vocal, word got out and Lodsys got smacked. Now everyone knows the standing and if they are dumb enough to try anything they will be smacked with requests for dismissal because Apple licensed the tech for themselves and all partners (ie the developers) and this is clearly double dipping. Knowing this they won't bother.

Are you guys on crack? Apple says that all its App Makers (ie, Developers) are "undisputedly licensed to these patents" and thus "protected by that license."

Read Apple's stern response to Lodsys. There isn't going to be a legal battle: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/apple-responds-to-lodsys-infringement-accusations-says-develope/

Geez man. I stopped reading your blog because of poor journalism. Glad to see nothing's changed. Sionara.

I suggest u fight I read what is going on and I am in the process in developing an app and a device for Apple. It took me a long while to get my thoughts together to find out if anyone had my idea or same type and nobody has it. So I am going to patent it soon. Make sure You get a double patent on your idea's and a strong Lawyer for your side besides Apple's Lawyer. 2 heads are better than one.

Lodsy, LLC is wrong and they are out of their minds they are going to lose because Apple was there first and had all their patents first. But Apple has to check the app store for all the copy kat apps and some apps don't work properly, I know that first hand. Especially the diabetes apps some of them you can cheat from them I took them to my doctors office and he told me they were no good.

Go online and try to find his file and case number it should be there if it is a federal case or any type of company court case and pdf it. Keep it in a safe place in your computer. Keep track of all his records and do all your investigations on him and I will do the same.

Keep in touch and email me if u find anything and I will send you if I find anything.

You have my email address I think if you don't send a reply and I will email it to you.