The relationship between Apple and its iOS developers may be contentious at times, but never let it be said that Cupertino doesn’t know which side its bread is buttered on. On Monday, the iPhone maker came forward to defend its developers against a brewing patent battle with Lodsys over in-app purchases.
The Loop is reporting that Apple sent a firmly worded letter to patent troll Lodsys on Monday over the recent flurry of infringement letters they’ve been sending to iOS developers who use in-app purchases. Lodsys claims that while Apple is licensed for the technology, its developers are not -- presumably in an effort to return for another cash grab from whoever the company thinks may have pockets deep enough.
Apple remained silent on the subject for 10 days, with a sternly worded letter to Lodsys from the company’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell. “Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the App Makers are protected by that license,” Sewell wrote on Monday.
“Thus 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,” Sewell continues. “These licensed products and services enable Apple’s App Makers to communicate with end users through the use of Apple’s own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple’s App Store. 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 full text of the letter was obtained by Macworld and posted online Monday. How Lodsys will respond to Apple’s push back is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly heartwarming to see that Cupertino knows when to come to the defense of the folks helping make them wealthy.
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