[IANAL]
What is clear from Apple's response is that it boils down to a dispute regarding the limits of Apple's license of Lodsys technology. Apple claims First Sale Doctrine - LodSys claims limited licensing. Personally, it seems unlikely that any reasonably well drafted agreement for commercial purposes would license a patent such that the other party could pass their rights without limitation to additional parties at their pleasure because this would essentially amount to a complete transfer of the IP rights to the other party (Apple in this case).
I'll add that because appears to be a formal agreement between Apple and Lodsys, the suits against individual developers look more like a new twist in an ongoing dispute than the pure patent trolling which the tech press has tended to use to describe the story (i.e. this seems more like an escalation of an issue of which Apple was aware than an attack from out of nowhere).
I'll add that because appears to be a formal agreement between Apple and Lodsys, the suits against individual developers look more like a new twist in an ongoing dispute than the pure patent trolling which the tech press has tended to use to describe the story (i.e. this seems more like an escalation of an issue of which Apple was aware than an attack from out of nowhere).
Apple: [http://www.macworld.com/article/160031/2011/05/apple_legal_l...]
LodSys: [http://www.lodsys.com/1/post/2011/05/q-i-developed-on-apple-...]