A BlackBerry app developer has been served with a patent infringement notice from US licensing firm Lodsys, which is believed to be the first time a developer for the RIM platform has been targeted by the company.

Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reports that Rotten Ogre, a one-man band run by student Yissachar Radcliffe, received a patent infringement notice from Lodsys, which alleges that the Lonely Turret game for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet infringes its patent for its in-app payment technology.

Since first serving papers to a number of iOS developers in May 2011 alleging that they infringed its in-app purchasing intellectual property , Lodsys has been pursuing iOS and Android developers. It now appears to have widened its net to include BlackBerry developers.

The in-app payment has been interpreted by Lodsys as covering apps that contain links to payment channels outside the app itself, as well as payments made within apps.

Speaking to The Globe and Mail, Radcliffe said he hadn’t realised Lodsys was “interpreting the patent so broadly” and that the free version of Lonely Turret merely contains a link to a BlackBerry app marketplace where users can buy a paid version of the game. Radcliffe has contacted RIM about the patent infringement letter.

Numerous other iOS and Android app developers have received similar letters from Lodsys, which owns a small number of patents but doesn’t design or build any products.

In response to the actions of Lodsys, Apple filed a “motion to intervene”, saying that an existing relationship it has with Lodsys provides protection for its app community. Google has meanwhile requested the US Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine the Lodsys patents. If more BlackBerry developers are approached, RIM may feel it needs to take similar action.

Software patent blog FOSS Patents also reported the news after Rotten Ogre contacted the publication’s Florian Mueller via Twitter.

“After iOS and Android developers, Lodsys is now also going after BlackBerry app devs. Since RIM faces a lot of challenges, I don't know how much help those developers can expect from their platform maker. But since neither Apple's motion for an intervention in a Lodsys lawsuit nor Google's reexamination requests have provided any timely solution, RIM can hardly do anything less useful than those two companies…” Mueller wrote.

Many developers have insufficient funds to oppose Lodsys, meaning some have been forced to change their apps in response to threatened legal action.

In July FOSS Patents reported that Lodsys had amended one of its lawsuit related to the in-app purchasing IP to name a number of new companies including Angry Birds developer Rovio and EA. Vietnamese developer Wulven Games was removed from the lawsuit.