Lodsys, destroying software one patent at a time.

Craig Hockenberry [via Twitter]: “Doing cross promotion in your app? Lodsys has a patent for that, too:”

Craig links to this post on the touchArcade forums. Lovely. Basically if you have a link in an application that promotes an upgrade to the paid version, or a different application all together, you’re in violation of a Lodsys patent.

What does that mean for links on web pages? What if I have a link from the web page of Product A to Product B? That is promotion, or as the letter states “elicited perception”, right? Does this frivolous patent only apply to mobile?

I also love the closing paragraph of the letter, it just drips with sarcasm.

“I trust that this has clarified the matter and that you now understand that we are not mistaken. We would like to enter into meaningful discussion with you about an appropriate license that is scaled to your use of our patented invention. We look forward to doing that as soon as possible.”

Makes me want to punch someone in the face.

Darned trolls.