Lodsys Sues Developers Ahead Of The Deadline It Gave Developers To Pay Up

from the while-the-getting's-good dept

Thu, Jun 2nd 2011 1:06am — Mike Masnick

This really isn't much of a surprise, but the new posterboy for the problems of a patent system gone mad, Lodsys, apparently isn't taking its recent tongue-lashing from Apple all that seriously. Instead, it's just ramped up its campaign to sue software publishers -- even though it filed these lawsuits before the time on its demand letter had ticked off the clock. The reason, of course, was so Lodsys could get the lawsuits going in East Texas and its notoriously patent-holder friendly court system. Of course, this is also pretty obnoxious. Why give someone a deadline at all if you're going to sue them before the deadline?

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Filed Under: in-app payments, mobile, patents
Companies: apple, google, lodsys

15 Comments

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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 2 Jun 2011 @ 2:26am

At some point, the rest of the nation's judicial system is going to ask East Texas to secede. That will make some Texans happy and they may just be enthusiastic enough to do it for the rest of the state.

Thousands of patent lawsuits will be invalidated and football will truly become an international sport. (Yes, I know Canada has their own football thing, but wasn't that just started to give Doug Flutie somewhere to play until he got bigger?)
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2011 @ 2:27am

This one's easy to figure out, Apple said it would fight Lodsys on behalf of all developers, so now they get to prove it.
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The eejit (profile), 2 Jun 2011 @ 2:32am

Re:
IT's also a massive problem for Lodsys, given that they are pre-empting the deaqdline they set. If any other business did that, it would immediately put me in the frame of mind for countersuing for extortion.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2011 @ 3:51am

Re: Re:
Given they don't pay any attention to their own deadlines why should anyone pay attention to them.

The court should just set a date and ding them for not appearing up two weeks early. Let them learn about ignoring their own arbitrary deadlines.
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NullOp, 2 Jun 2011 @ 5:10am

Court
That snarky move should demonstrate to the court that Lodsys had only one thing on it's mind - money. But, does greed matter in court? Courts regularly reward greed. Welcome to America...
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2011 @ 6:48am

Perfectly Simple Fix
All this patent system badness is coming from one thing - the offense of patent infringement. Dump it. Repeal that part of the law. Patents should be there to be used by anybody, for free. Inventors make money by consulting fees, not by running an extortion racket. Any inventor who does not like it is free not to patent. Trade secret law is still there. They could make money by putting their secret technology into a product and selling it. If somebody else figures out the secret, too bad, it was not much of a secret. Independent invention should be encouraged.

The quality of patents is now so pitiful that they do not deserve to be the basis of a government-granted monopoly privilege. Take it away. It was never a good idea to grant such monopoly privileges in the first place. Monopolies damage the economy, remember?
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Terry W, 2 Jun 2011 @ 7:33am

Deadline change.
I'm guessing that the courts will look rather unfavourably on the fact they've said one thing in their legal document to the developers and then jumped the gun in the courts.

I don't see how this couldn't go against them.
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MisterHux (profile), 2 Jun 2011 @ 7:35am

See they are innovative.
Sueing before the deadline, the only innovative thing to come out of Lodsys.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 2 Jun 2011 @ 7:50am

Re: See they are innovative.
US Patent 63581577244: Method of sending a notice to pay for patent infringement, then suing before the deadline.
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AdamR (profile), 2 Jun 2011 @ 8:37am

With Apple finally speaking up and saying their developers didn't infringe and are covered by Apple's license of said patent they were forced to move up the lawsuit. I guess they don't want to give the developers or especially Apple and EFF time to set up a solid defense against Lodsys. What's odd about all this, has Google or Microsoft spoken about this yet? Those developers targets also?
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The eejit (profile), 2 Jun 2011 @ 9:55am

Re: Deadline change.
I think it involves a brown envelope containg a Western Union card, some hookers and copious amounts of crystal meth.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2011 @ 10:43am

Re: Re: See they are innovative.
Dude, your going to be so rich. If it didn't violate my patent: 8,555,619 B8. - Method of fleecing money from entities which cannot afford litigation or have deep pockets.
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darryl, 3 Jun 2011 @ 12:11am

what law says they have to keep or even set a 'deadline' ???
the courts (any courts) would not even consider this as evidence or have it heard.

It has nothing to do with the legalities of the case, its not like a bill that has a deadline, after which you default on the payment.

They are going to court for patent and IP issues, not on defaulting on a bill payment.

Again, Mike you appear to totally miss the point.

Where is the law that says you have to provide the other company with a deadline, or have to keep to that deadline ?

oh thats right, there is NOT ONE...
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The eejit (profile), 3 Jun 2011 @ 8:01am

Re: what law says they have to keep or even set a 'deadline' ???
Breach of contract?
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patent litigation, 6 Jun 2011 @ 2:52pm

you can't blame them
When patent trolls regularly collect triple the amount of damages awarded to practicing entities in patent litigation, it is certainly no surprise that more patent trolls are springing up and becoming ever more aggressive. They have everything to gain and relatively little to lose by filing patent enforcement actions. I fear that the only way to minimize the threat that PAEs pose to small businesses is by eliminating their incentives to assert patents -- i.e., by limiting the damages that they can collect. In the meantime, you can't really blame a company like Lodsys for taking advantage of weaknesses in the legal system.
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