For a big slice of the tech world, a patent holding company known as Lodsys has taken on an almost Freddy Krueger-ish profile in recent weeks. Not only has Lodsys lodged infringement claims against giants like Hewlett-Packard and Samsung that are used to playing patent defense, but the company has also targeted a group of iPhone app developers whose pockets are not nearly as deep.
Happily for the app developers, Apple and its lawyers at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett aren’t taking Lodsys’s assault sitting down. On June 9 they filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in Lodsys’s Marshall, Texas, federal district court suit against seven app developers, claiming a license Apple obtained from Lodsys before the litigation began should cover the developers as well.
