Apple enters legal fray against Lodsys, files motion to intervene

15 years ago

“Nine days after Lodsys sued seven little app developers in the Eastern District of Texas, Apple filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “If the court grants Apple’s motion to participate as an intervenor, Apple has already submitted its answer to the complaint, and its counterclaim. Lodsys can oppose Apple’s motion to intervene. That may happen, but I believe Apple is fairly likely to be admitted as an intervenor.”

Mueller writes, “The app developers whom Lodsys sued appear to be bound by a non-disclosure agreement (which makes sense), so they can’t speak out on their current relationship with Apple. While I don’t have any confirmation from anyone that Apple has agreed to cover those defendants’ costs and potential risks, it’s hard to imagine how else this could work. In its motion, Apple states explicitly that the sued app developers are ‘are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and […] lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple’s rights under its license agreement.'”

“Apple’s proposed defense against Lodsys’s claims is exclusively related to the assertion that the alleged infringements are covered by an existing license agreement in Apple’s favor,” Mueller writes. “It’s another question whether Apple’s exhaustion theory will ultimately win the day. I’ll be happy about whatever helps to protect app developers, but at this stage I honestly can’t discount the possibility that Lodsys’s infringement theory may trump the exhaustion argument. But even if so, the good news is that Apple takes action.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]