According to a report from TechCrunch, Apple has entered into some kind of relationship with Digitude Innovations, seemingly one of those delightful non-practicing entities fondly referred to as a patent troll. Based in Virginia, founded in 2010 and working off $50 Million from Altitude Capital Partners, Digitude has filed patent infringement claims with the International Trade Commission (ITC) against the likes of RIM, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Amazon, and Nokia — but notably not Apple — all with what appear to be patents previously held by — none other than Apple. The patents noted are:

• USPTO #6208879 — Mobile Information Terminal Equipment and Portable Electronic Apparatus
• USPTO #6456841 — Mobile Communication Apparatus Notifying User Of Reproduction Waiting Information Effectively

Transferred to a shell company called Cliff Island LLC earlier this year, these patents were then, at some point, transferred to Digitude Innovations whose sole basis of existence seems to be to buy technology patents and then sue companies with said patents until they give into licensing fees or cross-licensing agreements allowing Digitude to sue even more companies over more patents.

Techrunch offers two possible explanations:

• Apple could be hiding behind Digitude to avoid the bad press that’s been surrounding patent suits as of late. (Although they had to figure this would become known — as indeed it has — and make them look even worse?)
• Apple was forced to settle with Digitude and offer the right to litigate these patents as part of the settlement. (Although why would Apple settle so quickly and quietly when they’ve fought so vigorously in the past?)

Apple and Digitude Innovations have declined to comment on the situation, but it goes without saying — it’s looking pretty shady on Apple’s part right now. Hit the source link below for much more on the situation.

Source: Techcrunch

Lodsys, the troll previously suing independent iOS and Android developers for infringing on a fax-machine era patent they claim covers in-app transactions such as upgrades and upsells, has now modified the suit to go after Angry Birds developer Rovio, SIMS developer Electronic Arts, Atari, Final Fantasy maker Square Enix, and 2K sports developer Take-Two Interactive. That takes the number of developers involved in the suit from 7 to 11.

FOSSPatents points out that this might mean:

• Lodsys isn’t afraid to go after “deep pocket” developers.
• Is content targeting Android as well as iOS
• Isn’t intimidated in the least by Apple legal
• Due to their existing licenses, Apple and Google might be precluded from trying to invalidate Lodsys’ patents as a means of interceding.

Apple is still trying to intervene based on patent exhaustion, though that may or may not prove successful. Some developers, meanwhile, have removed their apps from the US App Store to avoid any potential suits.

For more, listen to our special edition iPhone Live 160: World War Patents.

[FOSS Patents]

Apple (along with Palm, RIM, and the usual suspects) are all being sued by litigation happy patent-portfolio’er, WiAV Solutions, about whom Engadget Mobile says:

The company that doesn’t make anything or even have a web site, but files so many patent lawsuits that some companies have taken to pre-emptively filing suits for declaratory judgment against it.

Must be something super-non-obvious, remarkably novel, spankingly applicable, and about which there couldn’t possibly be any prior “art”, right? Turns out not so much:

Detecting the difference between silence and voices, mobile device power management, and altering music to accommodate voices.

Congratulations on officially joining my all-time favorite patent suits like “tabs in a GUI”, “display of a URL adjacent to window displaying contents of URL”, and “transfer of file over network”. But wait, could it get any more ludicrous? You betcha! Not only is WiAV suing, but it sounds like its forcibly asking the court to join its licensor, Mindspeed, into the suit as well.

Good luck with that.