

How Apple Handles App Store Infringement Complaints: Badly - halo
http://www.osnews.com/story/22458/How_Apple_Handles_App_Store_Infringement_Complaints_Badly

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andrewljohnson
He needs to lawyer up it seems. Get a lawyer to send Apple and the competitor
a note on letterhead saying that the dispute is without merit and that if
Apple proceeds with pulling the app, there will be hell to pay.

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StrawberryFrog
Lawyers are expensive. Then point of the article is that Apple could, quite
cheaply, have done their homework and he wouldn't have that large expense.
iPhone development - it's not cheap, once you factor in the lawyer.

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gonzo
lawyers are part of the expense of doing business.

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StrawberryFrog
... Which Apple has made an externality to them. Greatly increasing the total
cost but hey, not Apple's problem any more.

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tptacek
Are you an iPhone developer? Do you want a similar, competing application out
of the App Store? Do you want to spend the next 18 months of your life in
court, instead of developing applications? All you need to do is send an
fraudulent infringement claim to Apple.

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kevinpet
This doesn't appear fraudulent in any legal sense.

DMCA: recipient pretty much must act under the assumption it's legitimate,
legal action can be taken against someone who files one fraudulently.

This case: Apple is free to apply common sense, but no guarantee they will,
and no legal action is really possible against "someone sends something making
vague claims of proprietary technology".

It doesn't use any magic phrases that have meaning, like "patent pending", and
it doesn't claim to be a DMCA takedown, so if Apple decides to yank an app,
that's between Apple and the developer they screwed over.

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tptacek
Whether or not your infringement claim was really based on reasonable evidence
is something we'll find out in discovery, won't we? If you get Apple to remove
my software from the app store, and I sue you (and I almost certainly will),
and it turns out that your claim to Apple was frivolous, your liability is
going to be sick.

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thejay
There are app stores people complain about and there are app stores nobody
uses. Nothing new here.

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DenisM
And just when you thought it doesn't get any worse, it does. Hurray, Apple, I
guess.

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gonzo
I hope the cite all the prior art in their patent application.

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cmelbye
Yeah, people abuse the legal system. What's new?

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kogir
The thing that's new is now the legal system isn't even involved. There isn't
a lawsuit, just a letter to Apple making unverifiable claims.

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tptacek
There _is_ a lawsuit, if any real money is involved. Apple just isn't a party
to it.

