I think it's more likely that as a part of the licensing agreement Apple agreed ...

		revscat on Aug 9, 2011 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Apple to Lodsys: you'll have to go through us to s... I think it's more likely that as a part of the licensing agreement Apple agreed to not challenge the validity of the patents. This is not uncommon.

That's what I mean by "protection." I did read the article.