Oracle sues patent firm Lodsys on behalf of customers

Oracle has filed a lawsuit against patent-holding firm, Lodsys accusing it of harassing customers with questionable claims of patent infringement.

The suit claims Lodsys has been harassing Oracle customers with allegations of patent infringement and demands that they obtain licences on their patents.

"Lodsys has repeatedly threatened numerous Oracle customers with assertion of the Patents-in-Suit against Oracle's Web Commerce Products," read Oracle's lawsuit.

"Lodsys is not entitled to any royalties from Oracle or any of its customers, nor does Oracle or any of its customers need a licence to the Patents-in-Suit."

Oracle claims Lodsys has been harassing its customers with phone calls, letters, and emails about obtaining a licence to its patents. The tech giant says Lodsys' claims are groundless and is filing its suit in hopes of getting the firm to stop bothering their customers.

Lodsys is a patent-holding firm which earns money by licensing patents. The company currently owns four patents which it uses as its main source of profit.

The Texas-based firm made headlines last year after suing a variety of iOS developers over copyright infringement. The cases garnered so much heat that Apple had to intervene on behalf of the app developers.

Oracle is coming fresh off a lawsuit loss against Google. The two companies fought it out in court following Oracles accusations that Google infringed on the company's Java platform for use in its Android OS.

Recent high-profile patent cases have led to calls for patent reform in the US. Technology investor Mark Cuban recently wrote in his personal blog that he thought the US patent system was in need of reform.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also took umbrage with the current patent system. The group called for changes in the system with a blog posting on their site.

"Patents may have been created to help encourage innovation, but instead they regularly hinder it. The US Patent Office, overwhelmed and underfunded, issues questionable patents every day," said the EFF.

"Patent trolls buy too many of these patents and then misuse the patent system to shake down companies big and small."

Oracle declined to comment when reached for information on the Lodsys lawsuit.