Patent News | Apple fights the troll it fed
Tuesday, 24 May 2011 19:14
Not long ago Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak flipped his position on patent trolls. Once a firm supporter of patent trolling, Wozniak has recently made news by saying “A lot of patents pretty much that much,” and that “any fifth-grader could come up with the same approach.” The origin of Wozniak's sudden change of heart was suspected to be Microsoft co-founder and proud patent troll Dave Allen's decision to sue Apple, along with ten other major IT companies for technology he says was developed in his Interval Research lab in the 1990s.
As it turns out, Wozniak's decision to go after patent trolls may have been a bit closer to home. Recently independent developers of applications for the iPhone and iPad have been contracted by Lodsys, a known patent troll, alleging that making use of Apple's in-app purchasing capabilities infringes on a patent it owns.
