Lodsys LLC has sent a warning to a handful of app developers whom it believes have infringed patents the company owns related to apps and in-app purchasing: stop, or else.
The news broke when mocoNews was alerted to an employee at TLA Systems in Scotland who had just received his legal papers in the mail.
"Just got hit by very worrying threat of patent infringement lawsuit for using in-app purchase in PCalc Lite. Legal docs arrived via fedex," tweeted James Thomson.
The site says it also talked to four other developers, each with a similar story.
It's unclear if Apple will be roped in; devs are using its In-App Purchasing (IAP) system after all. The company also takes a 30% bite out of all sold IAP content.
The patents, credited to Harvard and Wharton School alum Dan Abelow (who ironically counts Apple as one of his licensees) but owned by Lodsys, are related to "systems and methods for providers of products and/or services to interact with users of those products and services to gather information from those users and transmit that information to the provider."
Simplifying the seemingly circular language, the Lodsys patents can be used in products to "provide for online purchasing of consumable supplies" and "display interactive online advertisements."
Unsurprisingly, Time's Techland blog reports one of the patents Lodsys claims was infringed is based on an "Upgrade Now" button found within certain apps -- including Thomson's PCalc.
MyCE reached out to both Lodsys' sole listed contact Mark Small and inventor Dan Abelow for comment. This post will be updated should either reply. (Via TechDirt)
