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According to this article, Lodsys is asking for "0.575% of US revenue over for the period of the notice letter to the expiration of the patent". In other words

According to this article, Lodsys is asking for "0.575% of US revenue over for the period of the notice letter to the expiration of the patent". In other words, if you accepted the offer, you'd end up paying Lodsys $100 for roughly every $17,000 that you make. I'd guess you could count on one hand the number of devs that will ever be on the hook for more money than a good iOS consultant could make by booking a single day's worth of work, which is at the very least the amount of time that will be spent figuring out what the hell to do to fight against something like this if you end up taking it to court even before legal fees (unless you happen to be an expert on patent law to begin with). "Lodsys needs developers to think it is cheaper to settle than it is to fight." Well, it is probably cheaper if you include lost time, even if you win in court, and that's the whole problem - as a pure business decision, it's a no-brainer, especially when you consider the stress of being sued and having to think about this garbage when you'd rather be coding... I only hope that the publicity of this crap means that enough people are pissed off to fight it at a loss instead of paying up, and they make Lodsys lose money on this tactic overall. But I worry, I worry...

bensummers 15y ago
You just need 174 entities like Lodsys, and over 100% of your revenue has gone.
- FlorianMueller 15y ago
  The likelihood of any one developer being contacted by "174 entitiesl ike Lodsys" is extremely low -- the same developer is more likely to be struck by lightning. I have repeatedly pointed out, especially on my blog, the problem of encouraging other trolls to go after app developers. But in the example, $100 is a much better deal than paying thousands of dollars to lawyers. The thing that should happen is for Apple and Google to take care of their app developers.
  - bermanoid 15y ago
    Further, that $100 is assuming that your app actually makes $17k, which from my limited knowledge of the app market means you're actually doing fairly well compared to most developers. Though maybe they're only targeting the apps that they know have made a decent amount, I'm not sure...
- quicksilver03 15y ago
  In this case, couldn't you just have them fight each other? I'm betting that their patent claims will be extremely generic, so it's possible that Entity#123's patent will be essentially the same as Entity#32's.
  - hrabago 15y ago
    No, they want the low hanging fruit. All their generic patents will be used against you, not each other. They won't care that you're already paying other companies as long as they get paid again. And if you even think about claiming that it's already licensed, well see Apple's IAP for what happens.

bensummers 15y ago

You just need 174 entities like Lodsys, and over 100% of your revenue has gone.

FlorianMueller 15y ago
The likelihood of any one developer being contacted by "174 entitiesl ike Lodsys" is extremely low -- the same developer is more likely to be struck by lightning. I have repeatedly pointed out, especially on my blog, the problem of encouraging other trolls to go after app developers. But in the example, $100 is a much better deal than paying thousands of dollars to lawyers. The thing that should happen is for Apple and Google to take care of their app developers.
- bermanoid 15y ago
  Further, that $100 is assuming that your app actually makes $17k, which from my limited knowledge of the app market means you're actually doing fairly well compared to most developers. Though maybe they're only targeting the apps that they know have made a decent amount, I'm not sure...
quicksilver03 15y ago
In this case, couldn't you just have them fight each other? I'm betting that their patent claims will be extremely generic, so it's possible that Entity#123's patent will be essentially the same as Entity#32's.
- hrabago 15y ago
  No, they want the low hanging fruit. All their generic patents will be used against you, not each other. They won't care that you're already paying other companies as long as they get paid again. And if you even think about claiming that it's already licensed, well see Apple's IAP for what happens.