A Day Without Lawyers
June 18, 2012 in Featured, Yes, I Am a Special Needs Parent… by Robert Rummel-Hudson
A few months ago, I wrote about the legal fight going on between the innovators of Speak for Yourself, a augmentative speech app for the iPad, and the Prentke Romich Company and Semantic (“The Iceman Cometh, with his Legal Team”). I quickly described the situation at the time like this:
Okay, let’s wander into the weeds for just a moment. Last year an AAC app called Speak for Yourself was released that got the attention of a lot of us because of its use of the LAMP (language acquisition motor planning) concept. This focuses on a core vocabulary using consistent motor patterns that do not change. It is the basis of successful language systems like MinSpeak, licensed by the intellectual property company Semantic Compaction Systems for use in devices produced by the Prentke Romich Company, under the brand name Unity. It is these two affiliated companies, Semantic Compaction and PRC, that are attempting to sue the aforementioned pants off the developers of Speak for Yourself.
Well, things have changed a bit. Despite the fact that the parties have yet to have their day in court, Apple has pulled Speak for Yourself from the iTunes App Store. (PRC released a statement that begins with “Last week Prentke Romich Company (PRC) learned that Apple removed a language assistance app from its iTunes® store pending the outcome of a patent infringement lawsuit filed against the company that developed the iPad® app…”, but a careful read of the legal documents shows that Apple made this move at their request. Weasel words. Gotta love ‘em.) If you don’t already have Speak for Yourself on your iPad, you are out of luck, at least for the time being. If you do, you won’t be able to receive updates or remote fixes, and when Apple upgrades the operating system for the iPad later this year, there’s no guarantee the app will still work at all.
This is obviously a concern for users who are using the iPad and Speak for Yourself as their primary mode of verbal communication. Including, as of this summer, my daughter Schuyler.
There has been a great deal written about this situation. If you’re interested, the first, best place to go is this blog post by Dana Nieder, “The Silencing of Maya”. Dana has been the go-to person on this story, and she’s compiled a comprehensive list of links to the story as well. If you want to know more about this, that’s where you should go.
Now for my take on this, for whatever it might be worth.
There has been a great deal of discussion as to the validity of PRC’s claims against Speak for Yourself, and in a sense, it makes sense for everyone, particularly PRC and Apple, to let a court of law settle those claims. In a very real sense, however, that outcome is ultimately of limited relevance. As things stand right now, everyone loses.
Speak for Yourself loses because their product and their company dies if no one can buy it. Their clients obviously lose a tool that works, and that is very much not a small thing. Apple probably doesn’t lose, to be honest. We tend to think of the iPad as a major component in the disability world, but it’s easy to forget that the opposite probably doesn’t hold true. Apple probably sells more iPads in countries that don’t even have electricity than they do to users with disabilities. Our poor opinion of their business practices isn’t keeping Apple executives up late at night.
But most of all, PRC loses. They can win this court case, they can squash Speak for Yourself and get everything they seek in this situation, but the fact remains that with every story that runs in Time and on CNN and the Huffington Post, they are introduced to thousands of people who know nothing about their good work or their mission statement or their hundreds of dedicated professional employees. No, PRC is being introduced to thousands of people who will now and forever more know them only as “the big corporation that screwed over that poor cute little disabled girl”. That’s the kind of thing that leaves a mark. We can (and will) continue to argue about how accurate that public perception may be, but it’s irrelevant.
It’s irrelevant, and I suspect PRC knows it. I think they might have painted themselves into a corner, trapped by their own poor PR decisions, and they don’t know how to get out of it.
There is a way out, for everyone. The parties involved can take a step back and consider how they might come together and join forces. Under the auspices of PRC and the community of Unity users, Speak for Yourself and its developers would discover a credibility and a world of users that they would be unlikely to achieve on their own. PRC would finally be able to repair some of the public relations damage they’ve sustained and would grow their family. They would solve the very real technical problems involved with breaking into the consumer electronics market without a great deal of development skill. That’s no small consideration for PRC; frankly, their early efforts with iPad app programming has bordered on embarrassing. On their own, I don’t think PRC could release a solid MinSpeak app any time soon even if they wanted to. And perhaps most of all, PRC would benefit from a kind of evolution of their language system. One of the things I’ve been hearing expressed quietly here and there, and it’s something I agree with, is that in its use of a single representative symbol configuration, Speak for Yourself probably represents an improvement on Unity. PRC has a chance to benefit here, if they can work out a collaboration or even a merger with Speak for Yourself.
Will this happen? Frankly, I doubt it. Speak for Yourself’s team seems committed to fighting this fight, and rightly so, and PRC is showing no sign of backing down. But if all the parties involved could just get together in the same room for a Day Without Lawyers, this whole horrible state of affairs might just have an ending that doesn’t leave anyone feeling taken advantage of. Kids like Maya and Schuyler least of all.
Thanks for this update, Rob. I’ve been watching closely and feeling awful for all the parties involved. You’re spot-on that PRC stands to gain a very large black eye out of all of this. Such a shame, too, because the individuals we’ve encountered in our nearly three years of dealing with the company have been nothing short of amazingly helpful and incredibly resourceful. I can honestly say that Nik wouldn’t be making half the progress he is now if it weren’t for his Vantage Lite and the continued support of our regional rep from PRC.
While Nik isn’t yet ready for an iPad-based system, I hope the SFY/PRC situation can be amicably resolved for all the users that ARE ready.
I feel the same way about PRC and the people I’ve gotten to know there (although I do suspect I’ve been removed from the company Christmas card list by now).
Thanks for this posting offering some options for a reasonable end to the conflict between two companies of people who clearly care about communication for all. Surely, as you say, there is a way for everyone to win and nobody to lose–taking into account the needs, values, and ultimate goals of each party. When I think of motor learning and communication, I think of touch typing. I guess we are fortunate that the keyboard layout wasn’t patented–or if it was, that patent was never generally recognized or enforced. Imagine the difficult challenge of a world in which keyboard letter configurations and layouts varied from keyboard to keyboard–or if there was more than one alphabet in use, as there are multiple symbol systems in use. There is a bit of a challenge to a touch typer with variation in spacing between letters and feel of the keys from keyboard to keyboard (springiness, clicking, noise, etc.), but nothing like the challenge of having keys in different positions–as one finds with symbol communication programs. I am puzzled why anyone would think that the arrangement of symbols for motor learning in communication should be patentable when it is essentially comparable to the layout of letters on a keyboard. Standardization makes more sense. We do it with keyboards and many other things in the world so that everything is not so difficult (consider hardware, for instance–fortunately, nobody has a patent on a specific size of commonly used nail or bolt or nut, etc.).
I hope all parties can look at the human needs in this situation and figure out a way to remove the risk that some people who use SFY may lose their communication. Maybe taking lawyers out of the picture would help them move forward. I hope so. The world needs to see that people who care about communication value it as more important than other peripheral issues. It is a basic human need–and should not be put at risk.
Judy Bailey
Centreville, VA
Communication information and advocacy on Facebook at Everyone Communicates
This whole tragedy incenses me. It should drive most software developers to no longer produce their applications solely on the iPad platform. In fact, other mediums like Android and Windows Mobile should be considered first and the iPad product issued LAST. Apple is far too draconian and ignorant to continue this blind loyalty to their product.
I am trying to get people interested in an HTML5 version of an AAC app. And it would work offline as well as the files are cached on the device. Or you can wrap the HTML5 code in PhoneGap project in order to create an actual app for iOS, Android, etc in case you need device features (accelerometer, camera, etc).
PRC’s website claims that they tried to negotiate with Speak For Yourself about “business solutions”, but SFY wasn’t having any of it. SFY’s website calls the lawsuit “baseless”, so that tentatively supports PRC’s contention that SFY is unwilling to cooperate with any profit-sharing agreement.
I agree that Apple could have left the App up until the court suit was decided, but PRC may have feared that would effectively give SFY the real world victory, because what school system is going to spring for a PRC device when they can get by with an iPad? The only market that would leave for PRC are users who need an eyegaze system, at least until the court case is decided.
I dunno, Rob, do you think your Fancy Pants Author status would enable you to act as a mutually-respected mediator between PRC and SFY? ;-D
According to SFY the “business solutions” all involved shutting down the app which is unacceptable to SFY.
Really? Where did SFY say this?
One of the most frustrating things about this battle is that all the discussions are going on behind closed doors, with each side pointing to the OTHER guy as the Evil Guys Who Stole Maya’s Voice.
Whichever side wins in court, the ultimate losers are the children whose language development is being put on hold for however-many-years it takes for the court case to be resolved. And with whoever loses sure to appeal…
ARRGH!!! Can’t they just create an escrow account to collect royalties, then award the proceeds to whoever wins once it’s all over? That way, the app will stay available to kids who need it in the meantime.
The statement by SFY mentioning the proposed business solutions from PRC can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=398855423483079&id=306312252737397
I completely agree Rob. Nice post.
Thank you for the update on this. I finally got my daughter’s school to agree to look into AAC for her, and SFY was the first one I was going to ask about after reading about it here. So a few weeks ago I downloaded the (very limited) free trial onto my iPad. A few days later when I clicked for the full app, it was not available. It must have literally just been taken down.
Now I’m not sure what to do. I need to get my daughter started ASAP (so I can prove to the school that she IS ready, and so it’s all in place before the school year starts) I wish both companies would think rationally enough to come to an agreement, but unfortunately even if they do it won’t happen in time for us. It’s frustrating because this seemed like it would have been a good fit for my daughter.
I stated my take on this in the Daily Kos Diary, Apple, Software Patents, AAC Systems, and the Silencing of Maya, that I posted under my screen name there, “David Hume.” Also linked at the “Website” link above.
I’m willing to work on an open source app to help the situation. you can do a lot with HTML5 nowadays, for web-based apps that work on all platforms. Or wrap them in Phonegap if you need more involved features.