I guess I wasn't following the Lodsys thing but I had not heard that they bought the patent in question from Intellectual Ventures? I guess Intellectual Ventures is using 3rd parties to troll.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/w...
a. IV uses shell companies to sue others, by selling their patents to these companies, get a cut of the eventual payout in any lawsuits, but I guess in the process have some amount of immunity against countersuits since the suing party is a shell company.
b. Lodsys is based out of the same building and suite in Marshall, Harrison County, TX, where, according to the episode several "patent troll" companies were incorporated with no visible indication on-site of actual employees or a business.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-pat...