This seems like very good news. Apple should throw a few tens of millions at this. Think of it; if Apple could somehow manage to kill patent trolling and deter it in the future, that could be of as much benefit to the computing world as iCloud, iOS and the iPad put together.
You know there's something wrong with your perspective when you think that iCloud, iOS and the iPad put together are more beneficial to the computing world than eliminating patent trolling.
If you read Apple's motion, they are actually quite upfront about it:
"A determination that the Developers are not permitted to use Apple’s licensed products and services will significantly diminish the value of Apple’s license rights, impair its relationships with the Developers, and lead to loss of significant revenue from all developers. In fact, the mere allegation of the same significantly threatens to diminish Apple’s rights and those relationships. Moreover, Apple’s rights will not be adequately protected by the current defendants in this case, because Lodsys has chosen to assert these claims against Developers who are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and who lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple’s rights under its license agreement."
It actually makes sense for them to defend the developers: after all, would you work in an ecosystem where you can get sued at any time without being protected by said ecosystem's owner?
That's a little to generic. You can still be sued for infringing on a patent in your software and Apple won't care at all. The reason Apple cares here is that developers are being sued for using Apple's APIs and developers have no choice but to use those.
If Apple doesn't succeed in the courtroom, I can't imagine them having any choice but to lay down a significant amount of money to either get a license that covers the app developers or to buy Lodsys outright.
Yes. In this case the control is going to help them I think. For one thing it's impossible to both comply with Apple's developer agreement and infringe on the patent. If you use Apple's API you should be protected from infringement due to Apple licensing the silly patent, if you don't you get rejected by the App Store.
The patent in question[1] is far from a clear case of infringement. The closest thing is Apple's app-rating system. And even in that case, there are clear cases where the patent's claims do not hold water (Claims #5, #6, etc)
That said, I'm glad Apple is moving in. There's no way a small indie developer can even begin to mount a defense.
