Some people are delightfully grumpy and best not trifled with. Martha Stewart, it appears, is one of those people. For those who don’t know, Stewart runs a media empire loosely based around design, decorating, and cooking. She has her own TV show and, it happens, four iPad apps.
Enter Lodsys with an accusation of patent infringement and a demand that she purchase four $5,000 licenses. This time, Lodsys chose the wrong victim. Stewart is notoriously tough and rather than pay Lodsys to go away she filed suit asking for a declaration of noninfringement and that the patents be ruled invalid. The best part is that Stewart is filing in Wisconsin where Mark Small, CEO of Lodsys, lives and works rather than in lawsuit-friendly Marshall Texas where Lodsys is officially headquartered.
Let’s all hope that Stewart prevails and gets these nonsense patents thrown out. Maybe it will also encourage congress to get serious about reform. It’s way past time.