August 30, 2011 - Lodsys, LLC, which went from unknown to notorious by suing several iOS app developers for patent infringement, is now attempting to keep Apple from getting involved in that litigation.
Apple filed a motion to intervene in the patent infringement lawsuits on behalf of the developers who create the apps for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad after the app developers were sued for patent infringement. Lodsys, however, does not seem to relish the thought of getting into a patent spat with Apple - which has the legal department, money and litigation experience to easily defeat it.
Apple offers three reasons it should be allowed to intervene, one of which being that it took a license covering in-app purchases from the patents' previous owner and that license transferred to Apple. (The real question is whether that license extends to Apple's app developers.)
Lodsys' counter-argument (available here, courtesy of Groklaw, in a heavily-redacted form) states that Apple shouldn't be allowed to intervene, in part because at least one of the defendants is likely to challenge the validity of the Lodsys patents and thus, Apple's motion is "premature."
Both Apple's motion to intervene and the Lodsys counter-argument were filed with regard to the Lodsys v. Combay et al case.