[ Below is the full school text of the letter Apple Legal send to Lodsys regarding its letters patent dispute with app developers . take the full story here . -Ed . ]
BY EMAIL ANDFIRST - year MAIL
May 23 , 2011
Mark Small Chief Executive Officer Lodsys , LLC[Address information removed ]
Dear Mr. Small :
I indite to you on behalf of Apple Inc. ( “ Apple ” ) regarding your recent notice letters to software developers ( “ App Makers ” ) alleging misdemeanour of certain patents through the App Makers ’ manipulation of Apple Cartesian product and services for the merchandising , sale , and legal transfer of applications ( or “ Apps ” ) . Apple is unarguably license to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that licence . There is no basis for Lodsys ’ infringement allegations against Apple ’s App Makers . Apple intends to share this letter and the entropy congeal out herein with its App Makers and is fully fain to hold Apple ’s license rights .
Because I believe that your letter are based on a fundamental misapprehension regarding Apple ’s licence and the elbow room Apple ’s product work , I expect that the additional information set out below will be sufficient for you to withdraw your great threats to the App Makers and quit and refrain from any further threats to Apple ’s customer and partner .
First , Apple is licensed to all four of the patents in the Lodsys portfolio . As Lodsys itself advertises on its site , “ Apple is licensedfor its nameplate products and services . ”Seehttp://www.lodsys.com / blog.html ( emphasis in original ) . Under its license , Apple is entitle to offer these commissioned products and services to its customers and business partners , who , in turn , have the right to apply them .
secondly , while we are not privy to all of Lodsys ’s infringement contentions because you have select to send letter to Apple ’s App Makers rather than to Apple itself , our intellect based on the letter we have survey is that Lodsys ’s infringement allegations against Apple ’s App Makers lie on Apple products and services covered by the license . These Apple products and table service are offered by Apple to the App Makers to enable them to interact with the user of Apple products — such as the iPad , iPhone , iPod touch and the Apple iOS operating organisation — through the use of goods and services or Apple ’s App Store , Apple Software Development Kits , and Apple program Program Interfaces ( “ APIs ” ) and Apple server and other hardware .
The illustrative infringement theory articulated by Lodsys in the letter we have reviewed under Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No . 7,222,078 is base on App Makers ’ use of such licenced Apple product and armed service . Claim 1 take a drug user port that allows two - room local interaction with the user and elicits substance abuser feedback . Under your recitation of the title as set out in your letter of the alphabet , the allegedly conflict human activity ask the utilization of Apple genus Apis to cater two - way communicating , the transmission of an Apple ID and other service to permit access for the user to the App store , and the exercise of Apple ’s hardware , iOS , and servers .
Claim 1 also claims a computer memory that put in the resultant of the exploiter fundamental interaction and a communication component to deport those results to a fundamental localisation . Once again , Apple render , under the violation theories localise out in your letters , the physical store in which user feedback is store and , just as importantly , the genus Apis that provide transmission of that exploiter feedback to and from the App Store , over an Apple host , using Apple hardware and computer software . Indeed , in the posting letters to App Makers that we have been privy to , Lodsys itself relies on screenshots of the App Store to supposedly meet this title element .
Finally , claim 1 claims a constituent that carry off the resultant from unlike user and collects those results at the central localization . As above , in the bill varsity letter we have run into , Lodsys use screenshots that expressly name the App Store as the entity that purportedly collects and manages the results of these drug user interactions at a central location .
Thus , the technology that is targeted in your observance letters is engineering that Apple is expressly certify under the Lodsys patents to offer to Apple ’s App Makers . These licensed products and services enable Apple ’s App Divine to pass along with end substance abuser through the use of Apple ’s own licensed hardware , software , APIs , remembering , servers , and interfaces , including Apple ’s App Store . Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys ’ patents to offer such technology to its App Makers , the App Makers are entitled to use this engineering science free from any infringement claim by Lodsys .
Through its imperil infringement claims against users of Apple ’s licensed technology , Lodsys is invoking patent of invention law to control the post - sale use of these licensed products and methods . Because Lodsys ’s threat are based on the leverage or use of Apple products and services licensed under the Agreement , and because those Apple products and services , under the reading articulate in your alphabetic character , entirely or considerably embody each of Lodsys ’s patent , Lodsys ’s threatened claims are barred by the doctrine of patent debilitation and first sale . As the Supreme Court has made clear , “ [ t]he authorized sales event of an article that considerably embodies a patent of invention exhausts the letters patent holder ’s right field and prevent the patent of invention bearer from invoking letters patent law to check postsale use of the clause . ”Quanta Computer , Inc. v. LG Elecs . , Inc. , 553 U.S. 617 ( 2008 ) .
Therefore , Apple postulation that Lodsys right away retire all notice letters sent to Apple App Makers and cease its false asseveration that the App Makers ’ use of certify Apple products and services in any way constitute infringement of any Lodsys letters patent .
Very truly yours ,
Bruce Sewell Senior Vice President & General Counsel Apple Inc.
[ Do n’t forget to read our full story on the Apple letter to Lodsys , include developer reaction . ]
