July 18, 2011 - A story in the Guardian reported that many app developers are withdrawing their products from the US versions of the Apple App Store and Google's Android Market because they fear being sued by companies such as Lodsys, which earlier this year launched a lawsuit against several developers of iPhone apps.
And in another blow for the app developer industry, a company from India - Kootol Software - announced that it has sent a notice of infringement to several companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, IBM, Research in Motion, LinkedIn, MySpace, Research in Motion and a number of other companies. Iconfactory, one of the app developers sued by Lodsys, is also in Kootol's sights.
In an unusual twist, however, Kootol doesn't claim infringement of an existing patent but of a patent application: U.S. patent application 11/995,343, "A Method and System for Communication, Advertising, Searching, Sharing and Dynamically Providing a Journal Feed." Kootol says it has also applied for patents in India, Canada and Europe.