Lodsys extends legal offensive against Apple iOS developers

Patent holding firm Lodsys has added five further defendants to its infringement suit which claims that Apple iOS developers are illegally using its technology on mobile payment systems.

Among the new defendants is The New York Times Company, which offers customers the ability to subscribe to a digital version of its daily newspaper.

Documents posted by the FOSS Patents blog show that Lodsys' filing in a Texas court requests a trial against five companies to determine whether Lodsys patents on mobile devices were violated.

The filings are the latest in an ongoing legal battle between Lodsys, Apple and the iOS developer community.

Lodsys contends that, while Apple has licensed its patents for use in the iOS SDK, that licence does not extend to developers, who should be required to agree to additional licensing charges.

Lodsys has also levelled similar charges of infringement against developers of Android applications.

Apple has argued that its own licencing deal covers end users and that the applications developers create should in turn be covered by that agreement.

The company took things a step further last month by filing to intervene in the case on behalf of iOS developers.

The Lodsys case is one of a number of patent infringement suits to hit the smartphone market recently.

Oracle raised eyebrows last week when it filed for a $2.6bn decision against Google over alleged Java patent infringements in the Android platform.

Microsoft has also looked to resolve patent disputes with Android device manufacturers by agreeing to a series of licensing deals with handset and tablet builders.