On Monday, the patent holding company Macrosolve filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Texas, accusing 20 app developers of infringing its patent on a system for distributing an electronic form via the Internet. (Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents explains the Macrosolve patent here.) Monday’s filing is Macrosolve’s third suit in the last couple months against app developers; the total number of defendants now facing Microsolve infringement allegations is 30, many of them small companies without much revenue. 

Meanwhile, last week the patent holding-company Lodsys filed its own East Texas complaint, asserting that seven app developers infringed its patent on an automatic app upgrade button. The Lodsys filing was the culmination of a short-lived soap opera that had the tech world abuzz. Lodsys, which acquired its patent from Intellectual Ventures, sent letters in mid-May to the app developers with the not-so-subtle suggestion that they take out licenses on the patent. In response, Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell sent a May 23 letter to Lodsys’s CEO Mark Small, asserting that Apple’s license on the patent covers the app developers. Lodsys responded on May 31 with a suit filed by William Davis III of the Davis Law Firm; it is a pretty clear indication of what Lodsys thinks of Apple’s defense of the app writers.  (In short, the company says it just wants to get paid, and isn’t picking on small developers. ) 

Some of the developers have found lawyers, according to the dockets in the Macrosolve March and  April suits; among defense counsel are DLA Piper, Fenwick & West, and the East Texas firms Ireland Carroll & Kelley and Albritton Law Firm. But there’s a lot of concern that developers might not be able to afford to defend themselves; Foss Patents’ Mueller is calling for the 30 Macrosolve defendants to band together in a joint defense effort. 

The patent research folks at Article One Partners are doing their part to help the app developers. (You remember Article One: OTC reported last week on the crowd-source community’s new Litigation Avoidance prior art research service.) Article One has announced a $5000 bounty for anyone who comes up with evidence that leads to the invalidation of Macrosolve’s patent. 

But don’t count Macrosolve out. In all three app infringement suits, it’s represented by the Houston firm Antonelli, Harrington & Thompson, which, as the Litigation Daily reported last November, is staffed entirely with former IP litigators from Weil, Gotshal  & Manges. OTC left a message with the firm, as well as with Lodsys counsel Bill Davis, but didn’t hear back. Apple also didn’t return a call requesting comment on its next move in the app IP litigation. 

(Reporting by Alison Frankel)