Foss Patent reports that Lodsys isn’t the only troll out there threatening iOS devs. MacroSolve is also suing the pants off of anyone it thinks infringes on its not-at-all-vague patent:

MacroSolve’s patent-in-suit covers electronic forms distributed via the Internet or to mobile devices

In terms of lending itself to incredibly broad interpretations and infringement allegations, MacroSolve’s patent-in-suit is similarly dangerous as Lodsys’s in-app upgrade patent. MacroSolve is suing companies over U.S. Patent No. 7,822,816 on a “system and method for data management”, “including the steps of: creating a questionnaire; transmitting the questionnaire to a remote computer; executing the questionnaire in the remote computer to prompt a user for responses to questions of the questionnaire; transmitting the responses to a sever via a network; making the responses available on the Web.” In other words, anyone who distributes electronic forms via the Internet or to mobile devices and then collects and evaluates the answers could be accused of infringing the patent.

It baffles me that the USPTO granted this patent.

Not me. The way things are going I fully expect random indie devs to soon receive lawsuits from trolls claiming to own patents relating to:

• Using a computer to create a piece of software, and then selling that software WITHOUT GIVING US MONEY, YOU BASTARDS.
• Positioning pixels on a screen, to create an interface that users can control software through, WITHOUT GIVING US MONEY, YOU BASTARDS.
• Breathing air anywhere near a computer (or not near a computer) WITHOUT GIVING US MONEY, YOU BASTARDS.