Media Guardian warned that international app developers are removing their products from sale in the US versions of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market, due to fears they will be taken to court by companies owning patents. The report said that the growth of lawsuits raises serious issues because “none of the principle communities involved – Apple, Google or Microsoft – can guarantee to protect developers from them.” One developer told Media Guardian that it is “far too dangerous” to do business in the US, with another arguing that “selling software in the US has already reached the non-viable tipping point.”

The main motivator appears to be actions brought against a number of app developers by Lodsys, a company asserting infringements related to a patent it holds for in-app transactions. While Lodsys has said that even though companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft have licensed its technology, this does not mean that these companies can offer protection for their third-party developer parties. Apple has filed a “motion to intervene” in the Lodsys cases, due to its relationship both with developers and the patent owning company. Actions have also been brought by MacroSolve, a company asserting a patent related to the collection of data by mobile devices, for transmission to a central server.

Last week, an Indian developer, Kootol Software, sent notices to numerous platform providers, service providers and developers, to “bring to their attention” a technology they are using for their offerings which Kootol said it holds “exclusive patent rights” for. The list of companies targeted includes Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple, Bharti Airtel, Nokia, Foursquare, RIM, Seesmic, Ubermedia, Facebook and Twitter. Kootol said it has filed for a US patent which covers core social networking technology, allowing users to “publish and send messages using one way or two way messaging and by subscribing to posts of other users of a network.” FOSS Patents said that while the companies cannot be sued before the patent is granted, the company’s current intention is “to strike licence deals early on and…pave the way for suing companies for wilful infringement after the patent has been issued.” It was noted that Kootol has also filed for the patent in multiple territories.