Don

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I might have worded that wrong. We submitted our app for approval a couple of days before their app was approved. Our app wasn’t out first. I was saying that since their app wasn’t released yet, we couldn’t have copied their design elements and functionality. (We would have had no change to look at and play with their app to do any copying.)

That being said, apparently they had a video on youtube a month before they released their app, so they could claim we copied that. (It only shows the augmented view.) I never saw this before I had my ideas, but not having seen something is hard to prove. (Its on youtube? How could you not have seen it?) If you look at the screenshots of the two though, the only similar things are that we both use the camera in the iphone (not sure how you can avoid that if you’re making an augmented reality app, of which there are many now) and that we both display the clarke belt in red. They did not invent the clarke belt, nor the calculation to draw the clarke belt. They did theirs in red, but all of the rest of my UI was in red, so all I did was remain consistent. They mark satellites as red dots on the clarke belt whereas we put little satellite icons in the correct places. The clarke belt was actually not even in the first version and was only added as a user request. If we were going to copy his app, we would have copied it in the first version, as its a very simple calculation/drawing. If you look at the apps in question, you can see that most of the UI isn’t similar at all, and they have different functionality on top of the basic ‘point it at the sky and see where your satellites are’.

I guess the real question here is if you see an app that you don’t think lives up to an ideas potential, (there are multiple applications on the app store that help you point your dish in one way or another) should you have to wait until the original developer improves their app or is it ok to write your own? I needed a dish location app, didn’t see a decent one, saw that apple was releasing an sdk that would allow an augmented one, and so I wrote one. I wasn’t happy when I found out I had competition, but there’s not much I could do but make sure mine was better.

Please don’t tell me that there are 100,000 apps with unique ideas on the app store…

Unfortunately, for most things apple (developer wise anyway) the only communication is through email or feedback forms. In fact, when I responded to this originally (to apple) they told me they won’t arbitrate and I’ll have to work it out with DP Tech. (No response from them when I emailed them though.)

Guess I may have to wait it out, and hopefully Apple will require proof of infringement before they do the actual take-down.

Most patent threats / infringements are all about jacking up your legal costs and making it ‘not worth your while’ to pursue, since you’d rather not drop thousands of dollars defending an app that will earn you the same number of thousands of dollars (never mind what it cost to develop). Unfortunately, it’s often not about who’s right, but rather about who is willing or able to throw more money at the lawyers.

The best approach is to match them step for step as you are able but not to escalate. I suggest you send them a counter-claim (complete with good spelling) indicating your well-reasoned and patient arguments. If you don’t have a good argument on a particular issue (e.g. if they really do have proprietary rights to the Clarke Belt on the camera preview), it’s best not to mention it at all in your response – it’s hard to notice something that’s not there. Just deal with what you can deal with well and hope that your bluff calls their bluster.

Good luck!