Lodsys is their lawyers. It's not a real company. It's a patent attorney who registered a company specifically as a vehicle to monetize the four patents they purchased/licensed from Intellectual Ventures.
Yes, sorry. I was thinking of Dan Abelow, the original 'inventor' ( http://computing2.com/) but on reflection, he's already got his license fee so I suppose he has no reason to care.
I never thought to look the guy up. It's one thing to file a bad patent. There are potentially many reason, such as your employer forces you to. But I'd feel dirty doing so. He seems to love it.
Has he commented at all on the state and use of his patents?
I find it humorous that his "Invention" site is mostly text but all in images. Humorous because his other business is web usability consulting. Not using text is probably the least usable thing you can do.
It's a real company in that it has a legal registration. But it's a vehicle created by a patent attorney (or more likely multiple patent attorneys) specifically to monetize four patents. The OP said Lodsys should be mad at its attorneys which is incorrect--Lodsys is a product of its attorneys! Lodsys would have to sue itself if it was to try and sue its attorneys.
Lodsys didn't file the patent application. As far as I understand, these are patents filed by Intellectual Ventures (Nathan Myhrvold's company). Lodsys is just a front for them.
You don't have to do that, and most people don't. If you happen to know about some relevant prior art, then you have a duty to disclose it to the PTO... but you don't have to go looking for it.
Hah. Wonder if Lodsys will sue their lawyers?