The in-app purchasing system implemented by Apple more than a year ago in the App Store is proving to be extremely important for application developers. Through this system, developers generate a much higher profit than from purchases, and this spring an American company sued several developers for using it. Apple licensed the in-app purchasing system from that company, but due to some misunderstandings, it seems that the developers were caught in the middle in the war between the 2 companies and some of them even ended up withdrawing their applications from the App Store. Well, Apple wants to definitively settle the dispute in its favor by patenting the in-app purchasing system implemented in the App Store.
The present technology provides a purchasing interface within an application that allows users to purchase a product from another source without leaving the application. The application offers a product for purchase, and a user, desiring to purchase the product can provide an effective input to cause a purchasing interface to be displayed. While the purchasing interface, or information presented therein, comes from the product source, which is different than the application source, it is presented in such a fashion that gives the impression to the user that they are purchasing the product directly from the application.
The technology that Apple is trying to patent is in some aspects similar to the licensed one, but from other points of view there are important differences. For Apple, patenting this system would mean gaining a guarantee that its developers will be left to work in peace, but it also means gaining a "weapon" that can be used against competitors. Both Google and Microsoft or RIM use a similar system for their own application stores, so Apple could sue them if they win the patent.
For now, the registration application is at the US Patent and Trademark Office and it is not known when a decision will be made regarding it.
