Lodsys, the US-based patent licensing company which has launched a number of actions alleging patent infringement by a range of iOS apps, provided an update on its activities, following reports that it had started proceedings more quickly than initially anticipated. After earlier claims from Apple that its license with Lodsys offered protection for developers, Lodsys said: “we stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys’ patents, and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications.”  While it initially gave developers 21 days to respond to its claims, the patent company also said that it had begun its actions earlier than planned, “in order to preserve its legal options.”

Cult of Mac reports that Lodsys has also begun targeting Android developers, alongside the iOS suits. Citing a posting on a Google Groups discussion, it was said that Lodsys has sent an Android developer a letter asserting that its patents have been infringed, with the company involved noting that “we are obviously a small shop and are not financially capable of defending ourselves over a litigation.” Neither Lodsys nor Google have commented on this issue.

In a series of detailed blog posts, Lodsys said that the contractual relationship between Apple and its developers sets out that Apple is purely an “agent” of the developer, with respect to the distribution of apps through its App Store.  It notes that “through that construct, and in several other ways, Apple has specifically absolved itself of any legal responsibility it has with respect to 3rd party patent infringement by application developers.”  It also argues that “if Apple’s contracts, or APIs, or actions cause damage to the application developer, then Apple’s total liability to the application developer is limited to a maximum of US$50. So, Apple’s downside risk to fight this is US$50 per developer and the application developer is expected to self-insure for everything remaining.”

While the focus is clearly on Apple and iOS, the patent company also said that “there are 30+ patent litigations active related to the Android platform at this time, so IP clearance is a visible and known issue with Android.”

Lodsys also said it will pay US$1,000 to “each entity to whom we have sent an infringement notice for infringement on the iOS platform, or that we send a notice to in the future, if it turns out that the scope of Apple’s existing license rights apply to fully license you with respect to our claim relating to your App on Apple iOS.”