14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has fired back at Lodsys, the patent trolls targeting independent iOS developers with threats over the use of Apple’s in-app purchasing mechanism, sending the company’s CEO a letter that states there is no ground for any legal battle.
Bruce Sewell, Apple’s senior vice president & general counsel, sent a letter to Mark Small, chief executive officer, Lodsys, on behalf of Apple Inc. regarding their recent notice letters to iOS devs to which the document refers as “App Makers.”
Lodsys alleged infringement of certain patents through the use of the Cupertino tech-giant’s products and services for the marketing, sale, and delivery of apps.
However, “Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license,” Sewell upholds.
“There is no basis for Lodsys’ infringement allegations against Apple’s App Makers. Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights,” he tells Small.
Sewell observed that “the allegedly infringing acts require the use of Apple APIs to provide two-way communication, the transmission of an Apple ID and other services to permit access for the user to the App store, and the use of Apple’s hardware, iOS, and servers.”
Well, those APIs and the technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents to offer to devs is pretty much all it needs to tell Lodsys they don’t have a case.
In his letter, Sewell explains to Small that “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.”
“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.”
The Apple SVP also wanted to make it clear that Lodsys’ actions are being interpreted as “invoking patent law to control the post-sale use of these licensed products and methods.”
That’s a no no in today’s legislature which, in turn, means “Lodsys’s threatened claims are barred by the doctrines of patent exhaustion and first sale,” Sewell adds.
Apple requests that the patent troll immediately withdraw all notice letters sent to third party developers, as well as retract any false assertions that their use of licensed Apple products and services constitutes infringement of their patents.