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From what I can tell, Apple didn't get its license from Lodsys. It's possible that Lodsys doesn't even know what Apple's license consists of, and thus the reque
by ahi 15y ago
From what I can tell, Apple didn't get its license from Lodsys. It's possible that Lodsys doesn't even know what Apple's license consists of, and thus the requests for discovery. I think it looks like Webvention screwed Lodsys over, selling them a patent without informing them that all the good targets have been licensed already. When this hit everyone was wondering why Apple wouldn't get coverage for their developers locked down. It seems they did, but no one told Lodsys.
- raganwald 15y agoNo they didn’t get their license from Apple, but that doesn’t mean Webvention screwed Lodsys over. I suspect that Lodsys have an odious but well-understood plan to troll companies that are thought to infringe, but saw this as a fairly low-risk opportunity to try for a big windfall. I think they’re hoping for some hush money from Apple, but if they don’t get it they’ll go after smaller fish that haven’t played the shakedown game with Intellectual Ventures. For example, if someone gives away free software for some kind of Open Source store on Linux with whatever it is they think infringes their patents, they’ll go after all the developers who use it, and there’ll be no umbrella licensee to intervene.