As a condition for selling in-app content, such as e-books, Apple requires developers to use its in-app purchase technology. As I reported a couple of weeks ago, developers have begun to receive threatening letters from Lodsys, a company that owns a patent on that technology.
It turns out that Apple actually has licensed the technology from Lodsys for its own uses—but the license does not transfer to developers using it, who have to make their own licensing arrangements. Lodsys wants a bit over half a percent of any in-app purchase revenue until the patent expires, which isn’t really large by itself but could represent only a drop in the bucket.
As PaidContent points out, a lot of patents went into those systems that Apple requires its developers to use, and if the owners of all of those patents sit up and take notice, it could mean a lot of hassle for developers. And just that possibility of patent trolls could have a profound chilling effect on development for Apple’s platform.
Unless it is willing to change its developer agreement or (much less likely) allow developers more choice in how they implement certain technologies, Apple may have to set up some sort of malpractice insurance pool for developers to pay into (with a matching contribution from Apple) and tap if they need to defend themselves against legal threats that come because of how Apple has mandated they develop their applications. Such an effort might be expensive, but the opportunity cost of having to pull an iOS application because of legal threats is potentially greater for both the developer and Apple.
Already, another patent holder has jumped on the bandwagon—MacroSolve is suing developers over a patent that covers collecting data from questionnaires, which it claims could cover “thousands of existing apps.”
Developing for Apple has already been shown to be fraught with a number of little “gotchas”, Apple’s policy requiring in-app purchases to be available (with a 30% fee) if out-of-app purchases are being only the most recent. If Apple doesn’t do something, this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for some developers.
“Developing for Apple has already been shown to be fraught with a number of little ‘gotchas’. . .”
So, tell me again how wonderful Apple and Jobs are? I keep missing that memo from Jobs telling developers not to worry because Apple will indemnify them for any losses. I see no reason why developers who are being forced to adhere to Jobs’ requirements should have to incur any cost for violating any patent rights.
Perhaps the best thing for developers to do would be to give Apple and Jobs the same finger salute that Apple and Jobs have been giving them and then stop developing for Apple products. That might cause Jobs and Apple to sit back and rethink some of their onerous policies.
Oh look. Apple just told Lodsys to stop threatening iOS developers with their false patent infringement claims. So much for the validity of the anti-Apple sentiment spewed across the Internet by the usual suspects over this last week.