It’s been reported that Issachar Radcliffe, a York University student and developer of the BlackBerry PlayBook game Lonely Turret has been hit with a patent-infringement notice from U.S. licensing firm Lodsys out of Texas. Why the big deal? Well, the issue is over in-app payment and purchases which RIM has clearly endorsed with BlackBerry® Payment Service 1.0.
“I never thought they were interpreting the patent so broadly,” Mr. Radcliffe said, adding that the free version of Lonely Turret simply contains a link to a BlackBerry app marketplace, where users can buy the premium version of the game. “It’s just a link … The two apps are entirely separate.”
Apparently the Lonely Turret Dev isn’t the only mobile developer to be hit with a patent-infringement notice from Lodsys. Myriad developers also received a similar letter and to their aid, Google took steps to battle Lodsys in court and in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Google explicitly states that Lodsys’ patents could eventually apply to thousands of apps and threaten the entire mobile ecosystem on mobile platforms.
It will now be up to RIM to take similar steps to protect their platform, developers and their new BlackBerry® Payment Service 1.0. According to reports, Radcliffe has contacted RIM about the infringement letter and is waiting for a response. Numerous companies which use online payment systems are attempting to have some of Lodsys’s patents declared invalid by a U.S. federal court. We’ll see what RIM will do in this case, if they decide to get involved.
“It’s pretty much impossible for me to do,” said Mr. Radcliffe, who has not yet decided what his next move will be. “Even an hour or two of an attorney’s time would wipe out everything I’ve made from the game.”
“It’s the first time we’ve seen a widespread campaign against basically individuals for patent infringement,” said Julie Samuels, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is running programs to educate developers about the Lodsys situation. “To the extent there is a silver lining, it is that this is shining a light on a problem that has been plaguing developers for a long time. This is a huge problem facing innovation in America.”
Full story here
via @jpinkerton