April 15, 2012 - Apple filed a motion to intervene in the Lodsys case back in July 2011, and Texas district judge Judge Rodney Gilstrap just granted Apple permission to do so.
As we reported back in July 2011, the Lodsys lawsuit scared away many independent iOS and Android app developers who lacked the funds to fight the lawsuit in court. Google, looking to protect creators of Android apps, filed requests for reexamination on two of Lodsys' four patents. Apple asserted that the licenses it already had on the Lodsys patents extend to its app developers.
Meanwhile, as we wrote in a November 2011 blog post, some app developers settled and others banded together to try to fight back. (However, their website does not seem to have been updated since last November.)
Judge Gilstrap, the second judge to be assigned to the case, granted Apple's motion, but only in part: "Apple is permitted to intervene in this suit, but such intervention is limited to the issues of patent exhaustion and licensing."