LodSys Goes On Patent Rampage, Sues Ten More Companies, Including Adidas And Best Buy.

LodSys Goes On Patent Rampage http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
LodSys have added ten more companies to the list of little App developers and the large companies like HP, Samsung and Motorola Mobility. The difference is they are suing two companies that is seeking  declaratory judgment action against LodSys through case filed by ForeSee Results in Chicago.
As usual the lawsuits are filled in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and the ten companies are
Adidas, Best Buy, Best Western, CVS Caremark, Sam's Club, Black & Decker, The Container Store, The Teaching Company, Vegas.com, and Vitamin Shoppe.

The assertions are;

1.    adidas America Inc.: "surveys on www.shopadidas.com" ('908 patent)
2.    Best Buy (BBY Solutions, Inc.): "surveys on www.bestbuy.com" ('908 patent)
3.    Best Western International, Inc.: "surveys on www.bestwestern.com" ('908 patent)
4.    CVS Caremark Corporation: "surveys on www.cvs.com" ('908 patent)
5.    Sam's Club (Sam's West, Inc.): "feedback soliciting FAQs on www.samsclub.com" ('078 patent)
6.    Black & Decker (Stanley, Black & Decker, Inc.): "feedback soliciting FAQs on  www.blackanddecker.com" ('078 patent) and "surveys on www.blackanddecker.com" ('908 patent)
7.   The Container Store, Inc.: "surveys on www.containerstore.com" ('908 patent)
8.   The Teaching Company, LLC: "surveys on www.thegreatcourses.com" ('908 patent)
9.   Vegas.com, LLC: "surveys on www.vegas.com" ('908 patent)
10.  Vitamin Shoppe, Inc.: "live interactive chat on www.vitaminshoppe.com" ('078 patent) and "surveys on www.vitamenshoppe.com" ('908 patent)

So now there are 27 companies going against LodSys, including those little App Developers. I think there will be more and it is heating up.
I also like to see some action in the front created by Macrosolve, the other Patent
FOSS Patents again have amassed the information regarding these lawsuits and could be found in this post. You will find many related documents as well as Mueller's analysis.

Will Apple's Letter To Lodsys Save App Deelopers?

Apple's letter to Lodsys http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
After being elated by Apple's letter to Lodsys yesterday, I feel I am back to square one again. One thing is, this is not something that Apple is fighting the patent (they already licensed it)and telling Lodsys that it does not understand the agreement or there is a misunderstanding.
Even if Apple stand behind the app developers, what if the same app developer makes Android version of it? Will Google depend the developer like Apple? Answers to all these are in the air.
So I went looking for answers and I landed on FOSS Patents blog that does a very good analysis of the situation. After reading the article, the confidence that the developers will prevail, need to be weighted. The developer reactions like TLA Systems' developer James Thomson, one who got a letter from Lodsys who told Macworld;
"“I am extremely relieved that Apple has stood up for its developers against these patently unfair claims by Lodsys, I always believed they would, but it’s a huge weight off my shoulders to see it written in black and white. The last ten days have been some of the most stressful of my professional career, and I’d just like to say thanks to Apple and all our customers and friends who have been highly supportive of us during this time.”"  need to be rethinked. Now what about MacroSolve?.
Yes I think everyone should at least read the article on FOSS Patents.

Apple To Lodsys, "Withdraw Patent Claims Against Our Developers"!

Apple  Lodsys iOS developers http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Not many times I take my hat off for Apple but today is one of those days. Apple has notified Lodsys via email and a letter to leave Apple's developers alone. That the license Apple obtained, covers all it's developers.
Patent trolls has been out looking for easy pickings like small app developers. I hope other big boys too wake up and come forward, like apple did.

Lodsys’s threatened claims are barred by the doctrines of patent exhaustion and first sale. As the Supreme Court has made clear, “[t]he authorized sale of an article that substantially embodies a patent exhausts the patent holder’s rights and prevents the patent holder from invoking patent law to control postsale use of the article.” Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Elecs., Inc., 553 U.S. 617 (2008).

Therefore, Apple requests that Lodsys immediately withdraw all notice letters sent to Apple App Makers and cease its false assertions that the App Makers’ use of licensed Apple products and services in any way constitute infringement of any Lodsys patent.

 I do not think it will end here but I can bet that iPad2, I have not bought yet, Apple will prevail.
Crunchgear has the complete letter from Apple

If Lodsys Was Bad, Macrosolve Is Worst! Sues Little App Developers First, Ask Questions Later.

MacroSolve is nastier that Lodsys http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
If you thought Lodsys was a bad patent troll, it seems MacroSolve is worst, from the way they attack and the patent itself. I like to see how the community respond to this. Microsolve seem to sue first and ask questions later with their broad patent. Every patent I see, makes me wonder what type of morons man stations at USPTO. I hope enough people will work together to get this patent invalidated, electronic forms and data exchange over the internet is as old as the WWW itself. I see every web page as a electronic form; you type an address into your browser and you are provided with data and response.
According to the FOSS Patents of Florian Mueller (and he has a better write up as well);

In terms of lending itself to incredibly broad interpretations and infringement allegations, MacroSolve's patent-in-suit is similarly dangerous as Lodsys's in-app upgrade patent. MacroSolve is suing companies over U.S. Patent No. 7,822,816 on a "system and method for data management", "including the steps of: creating a questionnaire; transmitting the questionnaire to a remote computer; executing the questionnaire in the remote computer to prompt a user for responses to questions of the questionnaire; transmitting the responses to a sever via a network; making the responses available on the Web." In other words, anyone who distributes electronic forms via the Internet or to mobile devices and then collects and evaluates the answers could be accused of infringing the patent.

I really hope people will come together and fight this unbelievable patent. I agree with Florian, hoping that Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM get together and thwart this nonsense.
FOSS Patents