Patent firm Lodsys has disputed Apple’s License claim in its blog and is reported to have filed lawsuit against iPad and iPhone developers. In a blog post titled “Apple’s License Claim Disputed”, the patent firm says-

On May 22nd, Apple’s chief lawyer Bruce Sewell unequivocally announced that Apple’s license to the Lodsys patents gave Apple’s 3rd party developers complete and “undisputable” freedom to use the covered inventions without paying royalties or fearing lawsuits. There was a very positive reaction in the press and blogs.  Apple appeared to give the Developer community what they wanted. Unfortunately for Developers, Apple’s claim of infallibility has no discernable basis in law or fact.

The letter was very surprising as Apple and Lodsys were in confidential discussions and there was clearly disagreement on the interpretation of the license terms of Apple’s agreement.  Before, during and after these interactions, Lodsys has carefully considered this issue and consulted several legal experts to consider Apple’s claims.  We stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party Developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys’ patents and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications.  Developers relying on Apple’s letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple’s own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple’s responsibilities to them.

In a private communication, simultaneous to this posting, Lodsys has sent a detailed legal position on the license interpretation issue, in writing to Apple that has been previously only verbally communicated.  Apple has our permission to publish that letter, in its entirety, should developers wish to review our dispute and evaluate the risks with their own counsel.   While we have nothing to hide, we cannot unilaterally publish the letter because it refers to information that was obtained with an obligation of confidentiality to Apple and we do not have their permission to do so.

In a separate blog post, the patent holding firm has also announced that it will pay $1000 to any iPad and iPhone developer who will be wrongly targeted on the patent infringement issue. The post reads-

While it is true that Apple and Lodsys have an obvious dispute about the scope of Apple’s license to the Lodsys Patents, we are willing to put our money where our mouth is and pay you something if we are wrong.  Therefore, Lodsys offers to pay $1,000 to each entity to whom we have sent an infringement notice for infringement on the iOS platform, or that we send a notice to in the future, if it turns out that the scope of Apple’s existing license rights apply to fully license you with respect to our claim relating to your App on Apple iOS.

It seems the patent infringement issue involving Apple, Lodsys and iOS app developers is up for a long haul. Last month, Lodsys sent legal notices to iPad and iPhone developers over using its patented in-app purchasing system asking them to get licensed within 21 days. After a lot of hue and cry from iOS developers, Apple intervened and disputed Lodsys claims. Experts believe that Lodsys move to file lawsuit against iPad and iPhone developers much before the expiry of 21 day notice period is an attempt of thwart Apple’s backing developers.

The iPad 2 will be launched today and industry watchers are expecting it to be a huge hit with users. Bloomberg reports that industry analysts are predicting iPad 2 to cross the 600,000 units mark during this weekend. Apple had an astounding success with its first iPad with the sales of its Wi-Fi only version crossing 300,000 units on the launch day on April 3, 2010.

According to the news reports Brian Marshall, Analyst, Gleacher & Co expects Apple’s iPad 2 to “outpace” the original model.

“Apple has such a huge lead,” said Tim Bajarin, Analyst at Creative Strategies Inc. and Rodman & Renshaw LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. “Competitors are going to be chasing Apple for many years,” he adds predicting 500,000 units in two days for the device.

The higher sales of iPad 2 will also give tremendous opportunities to iOS developers as their market will widen. Moreover, the updated and new features in iPad 2 will allow them to develop apps that would provide better experience to users. Many game developers have also slashed the prices of their apps to lure iPad 2 owners.

The Tablet market is increasingly getting crowded with the launch of new tablets. The Mobile World congress 2011 saw a slew of announcements from leading handset manufacturers. However, if the analysts’ predictions come good then Apple’s rivals will surely have tough time competing with it.

Rumors are rife in the web world that Cupertino based Apple Inc., may launch iPad 2 on March 2 at an event in San Francisco. Apple has already sent invitation to some media men which says “Come see what 2011 will be the year of.” Apple, world’s biggest company in market value, has not yet spoke on the issue.

In other news, RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky is claimed to have written a note to investors on Wednesday where he reiterated that RBC expects Apple to sell 30 million iPad 2 units between April 2011 and March 2012.

He also discussed hardware specifications in the note where he expects the next-generation iPad to include a rear and a front-facing camera, 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and a slimmer, lighter case. However, in his note, he also predicts Apple to suffer shortage in supply of the device due to constraints in the availability of components.

If the RBC prediction comes true then it will mean bigger market for iOS developers who are feeling the heat due to growing popularity of other platforms.

iPad’s dominance on the internet tablet field continues with more than 3 million iPads sold and 11,000 iPad apps ready for download within 80 days. That’s a startling number that beats all other mobile computing tablets like a charm.  Credit goes to adroit iPad developers who in a short time tweaked the iPhone applications and made it iPad compatible apps.

With most of the sales in US and iPad shipping yet to flourish worldwide we should expect the iDevice to spread exponentially. When compared to Apple’s earlier report the number of iPad applications in the app store doubled. This clearly shows developers interest in firming their ground early in the iPad app store.

Even though Apple has sent out invitations to developers to make iOS 4 compatible applications the craze is still on for iPad application and game development as evident from the reports. The iPad is supposed to be available in nine more countries in July which would mean the figures would go for a double next time we see this report around.

WoW! iPhone OS 3.2 Gold Master Seed is now available for paying members of iPhone Developer’s Program (which now services iPad development too). This is pretty big news for the developers who are gearing up for iPad development. This OS version is the first operating system for iPad.

The email from Apple states this:

• All iPad apps submitted must be built using this release.
• All members of the iPhone Developer Program can submit their iPad apps to iTunes Connect for review and approval. If you did not submit your app during the initial review period, but upload it by March 31, it will reviewed but may not make the grand opening of the iPad App Store.
• Make sure you read the iPhone SDK GM Seed Release Notes before installing and developing with this release.

Here is a direct snap of the Apple mailer..

Apple Now Accepting iPad Apps for the grand opening of the iPad App Store., the email sent to iPhone App Developers by Apple states this:

• Submit Your App by March 27.
• Build and test your iPad app using iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 available on the iPhone Dev Center. Only iPad apps built with iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 will be accepted for this initial review.
• Upload your distribution signed app through iTunes Connect by Saturday, March 27, 5pm PDT.
• The App Review Team will review your app on iPad and email you details about the readiness of your app.
• You will also receive additional information about submitting your app for final review before iPad ships.
• Only apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.

You can find the apple email below: