From the people I have talked to and what I have read, Lodsys seems to be asserting that US patent 7,222,078 covers in-app upgrades or purchases, such as a purchase of an upgrade from a trial or free version to a paid version.
The exact arguments of what Lodsys believes the patent covers probably won't be asserted by Lodsys until they are forced to file a Markman brief in litigation, which can be costly to get to this point for any individual company.
However, some tactics we can use now to attempt to squash this type of predatory licensing are:
1) find prior art that invalidates Lodsys's patent claims; and
2) find prior art that describes what the apps are actually doing.
The second strategy can put a lot of pressure on Lodsys to explain how their claim interpretaion covers something that was done prior to their invention. This can be very powerful in a re-exam or in arguments in litigation.
More info about the Lodsys actions are here:
igoeIP Apple Patent Blog
FOSS Patents
- USPA
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