“Timing is key in legal processes. I just blogged about a court order denying Samsung early access to the iPhone 5 and the iPad 3, and the implications it may have on the timing of Apple’s possible motion for a preliminary injunction,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“The week before last, Apple filed a motion to intervene in Lodsys’s lawsuit against seven app developers,” Mueller reports. “I was hoping for Apple’s intervention to be allowed very soon, but we may all have to wait. Lodsys would have had to respond to Apple’s motion by June 27, 2011 (Monday) but just asked the court for additional time — for two months, in fact. Lodsys would like to have time until including August 27, 2011.”
“The biggest problem is that app developers need to know from Apple and Google how they should handle Lodsys’s missives. Lodsys continues to send out letters demanding royalties. Whoever gets contacted by them needs to know whether the platform makers will provide blanket coverage to app developers,” Mueller writes. “Otherwise, app developers may be well-advised to sign a reasonable license agreement as a smarter alternative to the enormous costs of U.S. patent litigation.”
Mueller writes, “It’s possible that part of the reason for Lodsys requesting this additional time is that they’re secretly negotiating with Apple and Google.”
Much more in the full article here.