After ten months of waiting, a federal judge has finally granted Apple's motion to intervene in support of iOS developers in a slew of patent suits initiated by Marshall, Texas-based patents holding company Lodsys.

Lodsys has sued several iOS developers over alleged patent infringement for using iOS's in-app purchasing APIs. Now, the Cupertino, California-based will be allowed to argue that iOS developers are not guilty of infringement, because Apple already held a license for the patent in question.

Patent Infringement Claims

Initially, Lodsys started sending warning letters to various iOS developers, claiming that using in-app purchasing was in violation of a patent it acquired from Intellectual Ventures. The patent was titled "Methods and systems for gathering information from units of a commodity across a network."

In response, Apple sent a formal letter to Lodsys, asking the patent holdings company to halt legal proceedings, noting that Apple already had a license to the patent in question. The company had obtained that license through prior investment in Intellectual Ventures. Despite Apple's request and reasoning, Lodsys went ahead and filed suit on May 31, arguing that Apple's license did not extend to third-party developers.

In June 2011, Apple filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the developers. Eventually, the lawsuit grew to target many Android and other developers, including Angry Birds developer Rovio, while Apple was still waiting for a decision. Lodsys tried to block Apple's motion, but the Cupertino-based company insisted it had a material interest in the case.

"None of the [current] defendants have the technical information, expertise and knowledge regarding how Apple's technology works or the negotiation and intent of the License itself to fully articulate and develop Apple's exhaustion defense," Apple claimed in its supporting brief, as cited by Ars Technica.

Patent Exhaustion

Invoking patent exhaustion, Apple argues that since it licensed the patent as operator of the App Store, its developers are therefore licensed by extension. More specifically, Apple created its in-app purchasing APIs using the technology licensed from Intellectual Ventures. Apple already paid to use the technology. Consequently, the company claims that developers who incorporate that technology by using Apple-supplied APIs should not pay separate licensing fees.

Though Apple filed its motion last June, until now developers were still unsure whether Apple would be allowed to assist in their defense. FOSS Patents notes that the original judge handling the case had since reassigned. Therefore the case had to be reassigned, further delaying the decision.

Judge Rodney Gilstrap, the new judge assigned to the case, agreed that Apple should be allowed to present evidence of its patent exhaustion claim on behalf of its developers. Meanwhile, Google is working on having Lodsys' patents ruled invalid by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Apple will be allowed to discuss its license of the patents in the lawsuit, but will not be permitted to discuss the potential invalidity of the patents. The April 12 ruling allows Apple to intervene, but according to Foss Patents, "such intervention is limited to the issues of patent exhaustion and licensing."

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)