Oracle sues to smash patent troll Lodsys
Oracle, it seems, is not one for irony. Right after an epic court fight with Google in which it was accused of abusing its intellectual property, the software maker is now trying to dissolve another company's patents.
Context & Ripple Effects
Oracle's move comes days after the second phase of its own Android litigation ended badly for it — a jury found on May 30, 2012 that Google did not infringe Oracle's patents, capping two years of wrangling that began with Oracle's 2010 patent and copyright suit over Java in Android and survived Google's early bid to have the case thrown out and the Lindholm-email fights in between.
Now Oracle is on the other side of that posture: it has filed suit seeking to invalidate Lodsys's patents outright. GigaOM flags the irony openly — a company accused of weaponizing IP against Google is now trying to dissolve another firm's portfolio — but the practical effect is that a well-funded plaintiff is taking on an assertion entity whose usual targets are small iOS and Android developers.
First-order effects
- Lodsys now faces a declaratory-style challenge from one of the deepest pockets in software, threatening the core asset of its licensing business rather than just another settlement check.
- The independent app developers Lodsys has been pressing for licenses gain a powerful ally whose win would strip the leverage behind those demands.
Second-order effects
- Other Lodsys targets — and defendants of similar assertion entities — can point to Oracle's suit as a template for fighting back instead of settling cheaply.
- Rival platform players like Apple and Google, whose developer ecosystems absorb most troll demand letters, benefit if Oracle's approach raises the risk profile of the assertion-business model.
Third-order effects
- If deep-pocketed platforms routinely answer assertion entities with invalidation suits rather than settlements, the economics of patent trolling deteriorate — litigation costs rise while expected payouts fall.
- That pattern, if it holds across cases like this, strengthens the case for legislative and judicial scrutiny of non-practicing entities, pushing toward a market where patent value tracks real implementation rather than licensing threats.
The trend: Large platform companies are shifting from paying off patent assertion entities to directly attacking their portfolios, turning trolls' biggest customers into their biggest legal threat.