Novell has become the eighth outfit to ask a Judge to tell patent troll Lodsys to go forth and multiply. Novell is one of the ten companies Lodsys already sued in February and had asked for a bit of time before it filed its answer.

Yesterday Novell not only denied Lodsys's claims, it brought counterclaims, requesting declaratory judgment of invalidity (and non-infringement) of Lodsys's two core patents. These patents are the same ones that Lodsys has been using to squeeze money out of Apple developers.

Brother and Lenovo have also contested the validly of the Lodsys patent as a counterclaim so Novell is in good company. A counterclaim is more aggressive and could remove Lodsys's only weapon.

It looks like Lodsys is taking on a lot of people and indeed is sending out more demands at the moment. However under US law the power is with the people making the patent claim and not those defending. All Lodsys has to do is sit back and wait for the process to play out.

The outfit is certain to  collect some settlements before it is all over simply because people do not want to waste so much cash in legal fees.