Lodsys continues its two-year campaign to collect licensing fees from iOS developers who include in-App purchases in their apps by going for big game, as they are alleging patent infringement in entertainment giant Disney’s iOS apps, including the popular “Where’s My Water?”
Lodsys has been suing iOS software makers since 2011, when it first threatened a number of developers with litigation if they did not license from Lodsys technologies related to in-app purchases. The firm holdsU.S. Patent No. 7222078, entitled “Methods and Systems for Gathering Information from Units of a Commodity Across a Network,” filed initially in 2003 but dating back to 1992 through continuations to earlier applications. It also holds U.S. Patent No. 7620565, “Customer-based product design module.”
Lodsys claims that “applications such as Where’s My Water?… infringe at least claims 1, 15, and 27 of the ‘565 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271.”
The Lodsys complaint, filed with, say it with me now — the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division — says that the firm “informed Disney of the patents-in-suit and offered to enter into a licensing agreement that would allow Disney to continue practicing the inventions claimed in patents-in-suit.” Instead of entering into such an agreement, Lodsys claims, Disney “chose to continue its infringement.”
In addition to Disney, Lodsys has filed suit against nine other developers in the past few days, including Gameloft and Backflip Studios. The firm is also targeting retailers such as Nordstrom, Godiva, and Burberry, in addition to companies which include SanDisk, Crocs, General Motors, and HP.
