Apple on Monday reportedly sent a letter to patent holder Lodsys telling the company to back off its pursuit of iOS developers.
"Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license," Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel, wrote in a letter posted online by MacWorld. "There is no basis for Lodsys' infringement allegations against Apple's App Makers."
Lodsys made headlines recently for contacting iOS developers and threatening legal action for patent infringement. The patent in question covers "methods and systems for gathering information from units of a commodity across a network," which translates into in-app purchases, like upgrades from lite to paid versions. Even though Apple has licenses for Lodsys patents, Lodsys argued that those licenses don't extend to app developers.
Lodsys defended itself in a series of blog posts on the issue, but Apple isn't buying it.
Lodsys has a "fundamental misapprehension regarding Apple's license and the way Apple's products work," Sewell wrote. He outlined why Apple is within its rights to offer in-app purchases for its developers and ordered Lodsys to "withdraw your outstanding threats to the App Makers and cease and desist from any further threats to Apple's customers and partners."
Apple said it is licensed to all four patents held by Lodsys. "Under its license, Apple is entitled to offer these licensed products and services to its customers and business partners, who, in turn, have the right to use them," Sewell said.
"These licensed products and services enable Apple's App Makers to communicate with end users through the use of Apple's own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple's App Store," he continued. "Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys' patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys."
Lodsys did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple also did not respond to questions about the validity of the letter.
Apple iOS developers, however, expressed relief via Twitter that Apple has stepped in.
"I should write to Steve Jobs more often," Twitterific developer Craig Hockenberry tweeted. "DEAR STEVE I WANT TO KISS YOU HUGS CHOCK."
He later said that Apple's letter is "good news, to be sure. But there are still fundamental problems with software patents. The threats will evolve until they're fixed."
James Thomson, maker of PCalc and DragThing, also tweeted that "our long international nightmare is over."