Another one hit by Lodsys patent infringement. This time it's BitHack.

It seems Lodsys isn't happy with their current slew of suits already underway and have sent another patent infringement welcome package to another Android developer. This time BitHack, the developers of Apparatus, are the ones who have received this unwanted package in the mail.

BitHack has mentioned on Twitter, in the form of asking where to go for help, that they have just received the package from Lodsys that a number of other Android developers have received. The patent in question is regarding in-game purchases and linking to any sort of in-game item that can be purchased or linking to an upgraded version of the game even if it is just a link to the Android Market. That's the general idea of the patent anyways.

While a ton of Android developers use this sort of system, Lodsys tends to only go after popular games. It's more profitable for them. However some developers are so worried about getting this patent infringement package from Lodsys that they have actually removed their game, as at least one developer has done, from the Android Market in the US. This is in hope to avoid getting hit by this ridiculous patent suit from Lodsys. Here is what the welcome package looks like that BitHack received which goes over what they are getting threatened for:

The only thing more troubling about all of this is that while Lodsys is running free right now suing developers on both iOS and Android, Google has remained silent still about the whole issue and instead have devoted their energy to making blog posts about the whole Nortell Patent sale. Hopefully Google will at some point make some sort of statement about this Lodsys issue and what they plan to do about it or at least acknowledge that they are looking into it. Apple has recently come out to make a stand against Lodsys stating that if they want to sue their developers that they will have to go through them first. Hopefully Google will say the same.

If you get hit with this welcome package from Lodsys, two great resources to check out would be FOSS Patents Blog and the EFF.org website.

Source: BitHack Twitter