Indie developers turned to the internet hours after receiving warning letters from Lodsys last month, but larger devs took a more traditional approach , leaving the communication and finger-pointing to lawyers instead. Two such companies, the Big apple Times and OpinionLabs, came to light after filing suit against the patent troll yesterday, seeking declaratory judgements to invalidate Lodsys’s patents. A nine-page complaint filed by NYT lists four Lodsys patents, including 7,222,078, which had previously been used to focus on smaller developers. NYT’s ad click-through system and OpinionLabs’ surveys were both also targeted, and if the suits are successful, Lodsys could be liable for all legal expenses, and wouldn’t be allowed to assemble on its patents one day.
We spoke with Julie Samuels of the EFF , who explained that filing for a declaratory judgment could theoretically enable NYT and OpinionLabs to have trials held in California and Illinois, where the declaratory judgments were filed, rather than the Eastern District of Texas — the notoriously plaintiff-friendly court where Lodsys filed its suit against seven devs on May 31st . Other devs who received letters but haven’t yet been sued could also do the identical. The suits brought by NYT and OpinionLabs formally call the validity of Lodsys’s patents into question, but unfortunately don’t change the sport for devs Lodsys already sued, who would still be liable for licensing fees and other damages if the court determines the patents to be valid (and their apps to be infringing).
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