More app developers sued over patent claims | iBlogAuto

More app developers sued over patent claims
Fears that smartphones are becoming new hunting ground for so-called ?patent trolls? as 10 more app developers sued over infringement claims
Wednesday 18 May 2011 08.03 BST
App developers on both Apple and Android platforms have been targeted in the latest patent infringement claims. Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty Images
Another patent-owning company has targeted app developers on both Apple and Android platforms, intensifying concerns among developers that smartphones are the new hunting ground for so-called ?patent trolls?.
MacroSolve, a US-based company traded ?over the counter?, has so far sued 10 app development companies, claiming that they infringe a patent 7,822,816, entitled ?system and method for data management? , which covers the collection and transmission of data for questionnaires and puts them online.
The patent was filed in August 2003 and awarded in October 2010, and the discussion specifically relates to ?handheld computers? ? a category that has now come to include smartphones.
Jim McGill, chairman of MacroSolve, has said that the patent covers ?thousands of existing apps ? that collect data and send it to a central server. The company has chosen to sue app developers in the ?rocket docket? jurisdiction of Texas Eastern District in Tyler ? where patent-owning companies frequently file cases in the expectation that the courts will process them quickly, and in their favour.
The news will further discomfit app developers, who have already seen Lodsys ? a company which bought a small portfolio of four patents from another patent licensing company, Intellectual Ventures ? send demands for payment to a number of iPhone app developers .
Software patents issued by the US Patent Office have the potential to strangle the burgeoning mobile app business, because they can tie up small developers in court cases that they cannot afford to defend ? or where they may be unable, for geographical reasons, to organise a defence.
Apple?s legal department is understood to be investigating the claims by Lodsys, but it is not known whether it has been alerted to the claims being made by MacroSolve against the 10 developers.
If the patent cases are upheld, the app developers could be liable for damages and for royalty payments on the use of the patent.
Developers could aim to have the patent invalidated, but that would be a long and expensive legal process.
The cases have highlighted a problem with the US Patent Office, which has already been criticised for awarding patents that are too broad, or even cover impossible inventions such as antigravity vehicles .
The patents owned by MacroSolve might be challenged and nullified on the basis of being ?obvious?, given the time when they were filed, when the mobile web was already being used in a number of countries. But that would involved developers in long drawn-out legal battles which they are ill-equipped to fight.
Lodsys and MacroSolve may, if successful, chase hundreds or even thousands of app developers in Apple?s iTunes App Store and Google?s Android Marketplace, as well as the rapidly-growing Windows Phone Market.
Apple, Google and Microsoft have not commented on the latest claims and lawsuits.
Since 18 April, MacroSolve is suing:
? Canvas Solutions, which makes Smart Business Forms ;
? Kony Solutions , which generally writes mobile apps;
? Widget Press provides a ?FormEntry Touch Private Label? program to deliver custom forms to iOS users;
? Pogo Corporation , which provides apps such as cinema information;
? and SWD Interactive , which helps people build iPhone apps.
These join four companies it began suing in March:
? Blue Shoe Mobile Solutions , which helps people create mobile apps;
? Brazos Technology , which provides ticketing system apps for public officers such as police;
? On The Spot Systems , which offers survey apps for businesses to offer to customers;
? and Formstack , which provides billing apps.
Over-the-counter investors are being told that MacroSolve?s stock ? which has dropped from $2.50 in late 2009, when it was first listed, to around 25c now ? represents a ?phenomenal and solid investment?.
MacroSolve, founded in 1997, itself says it is ?a pioneer in delivering mobile apps, technology, and solutions to businesses and government? through its two divisions, Anyware and Illume Mobile, and says it has ?long-standing? relationships with companies including Apple, BlackBerry maker RIM, Microsoft and Motorola.
It does produce its own apps through its mobile divisions, such as Elmer?s BBQ ?It Be Bad? , which shows a menu of smoked meats from a food chain.
However, according to details released by the company on 17 May, its sales in the first quarter of 2011 were just $116,000, down from $274,000 in the same period in 2010, with losses widening to $507,000 compared to $446,000.
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This article was published on guardian.co.uk at
08.03 BST on Wednesday 18 May 2011
14.22 BST on Wednesday 18 May 2011
well there is need for review of the patent laws when it come to the software world.
shorting the time of the patent for no more than 5 years and make the claim for patent far more harder.
A patent for sending data from a handheld computer to a server? Rly?
So am I infringing their patent by writing a comment here ?
I filed a patent for a system for filing obvious and frivolous patents so I could cash in on them later without ever having to do any actual clever stuff.
Who do I speak to about this?
I?d feel sorry for Apple if they weren?t patent hoarding ?so-called patent trolls? themselves.
So nah. Tough luck and you knew well it was coming. Thanks for screwing the devs Steve.
A less damaging version of the unethical economic quackery that is software patents would be nice, UriTalo, but a complete eradication is actually preferable on practical legal etc. grounds as well as theoretical grounds.
I?m planning on filing a patent covering communication between handheld devices and wireless enabled bidets. Hopefully some dev in the future will develop an app that allows me to communicate over the intertubes with my bidet thereby allowing me to preprogram my botty washes. Then I?ll call my lawyer and clean up.
Jeez some of these software patents are just bullshit.
Yes, some of the patents seem to have been passed my a Patent Examiner in Residence on another Planet. They are in theory meant to be precise and original.
The Apps developers should just sit tight. Not even enter into communication with the claimants. Leave Apple to hire the IP lawyers. They?ve got the platform, they?ve got the deep pockets.
The Hargreaves Report/Review isn?t all about copyright and has done a pretty good job in its patents section and in its Annex Z supporting document (specifically about software patents and business methods).
Take the battle one step higher and set up a fund to short MacroSolve?s stock.
From that point it is only a matter of PR, convincing stock holders the claims will fail and stock will crash ? investors in this kind of stock are fickle and will get the jitters and sell up very quickly, crashing the company..
Where are MacroSolve getting the funds to chase the claims? I bet even that is through leverage and a risk to the stock value in itself. They will be relying on the small companies caving in straight away ? a few too many robust defences and suddenly MacroSolves court cases look like a large liability..
Go on Google and Apple, provide some lawyers or see the apps market begin to fall apart.
@Isajoanting a company?s stock price has no effect on its day-to-day operations. It?s a market belief of the company?s value. It may affect its vulnerability to takeover (by making it cheap to buy a majority of the stock) but inside a company, the stock price simply doesn?t affect the financials ? which is all about cash coming in and out.
Is the software patent system working?
Or is is just a weapon that big companies use to club to death small innovators?
If someone can independently create technology that simply matches an outcome (without intentionally copying the methodology of the first party) why should they pay a royalty?
Something as basic as trasferring data from a mobile device to a server should not be patenable, however if someone has developed a unique way of doing that then that should be patentable? Such as a faster more efficient way of doing it. I would have said TCP/IP would be patentable. It is frustrating when a solution is developed using a combination of agelong standard tools and some bollocks comes along and can copy the method and there is nothing the originator can do about it. It means we are only a couple of months ahead of our competitor and if they are a bigger company and have a larger marketing budget all that initial hard work has been wasted.
The problem is differentiating between an implementation, and simply patenting an outcome.
If you can match the outcome, without duplicating the implementation, then I don?t think a royalty makes sense.
For software, I?d much prefer to see something like copyright. Where duplication of expression is prevented, but not duplication of ideas is fine.
Ideas are not what drives business, it is the quality of implementation that really matters.
Note to self: remember to read before pressing ?post?.
@CharlesArthur ?a company?s stock price has no effect on its day-to-day operations??
With respect, that?s a bit simplistic, confidence in a company (as reflected by the share price) will affect its abiity to raise finance. Sometimes companies need finance to, for example, finance working capital, and if investors have high confidence they are more willing to swap cash for equity.
I would like to see screen output copyrighted even though it may be made up of output of standard industry tools. It is the way that the tools are combined that makes the screen unique but I understand such screen displays cannot be copyrighted.
The day Microsoft brought out Excel must have pissed off Lotus with their 123 product.
Once upon a time I worked in a large MNC?
They had a dedicated patents department and went about training EVERY employee on how to fill out a patent claim with the patents dept.
They had one hero who had 1,000 patent claims to his name (don?t ask me how that is humanly possible).
The thing is, there was no innovation involved in the vast majority of these.
You can copyright a concept. In a couple of years time when somebody actually implements what your vision is, you can slap them with a copyright infringement.
Interesting that this company is now in the class of ?Patent Troll? (btw, I agree completely). If you look at the details, this company is heavily in debt to a number of ?friends of the chairman? and has a long and proven history of loosing money ($10 million in accumulated losses). Going public was intended as an exit strategy for the initial investors and the company simply has not performed (check financial statements and delisting from OTCQB in Feb 2011). The patent is extremely broad and IMHO obvious, however the question of the ability of small developers to defend against claims is serious.
Macrosolve has retained counsel on a contingency basis, so their costs/risk to litigate are small. Perhaps the targets of the litigation could pool their resources in counter and/or file as a class action? Macrosolve isn?t going to go after any of the big boys until they get some disposition on the initial cases as precedence, but after that expect some agressive action against anyone and everyone they think they can get some money out of. They have already stated that they intend to monetize the patent as quickly as possible.
Talk about stifling innovation ? IMHO, this troll needs to be squashed ASAP.
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