It has been interesting to follow Lodsys’ (a patent holding company) pursuit of Apple app developers for patent infringement. It has been reported that Apple took a license to the patent-at-issue from Lodsys and now, Lodsys is sending cease and desist letters to various Apple app developers. According to various sources, Apple allegedly required use of the allegedly infringing technology by the developers so certain groups are calling on Apple to indemnify the developers. Read the
Electronic Frontier Foundation’s take on the issue.
What is the take away from this scenario? If you are developer and are required to incorporate some sort of technology into your software app, it would be smart to try to negotiate some sort of indemnity provisions to avoid the situation described above. While this may be difficult as the developers are not often in a position of power to negotiate such terms, they need to be aware of what may transpire without such protections in place.