It wouldn't be too far fetched to imagine that it's simply because Apple knows that some of the patents involved are ones which cover areas they're working in a

It wouldn't be too far fetched to imagine that it's simply because Apple knows that some of the patents involved are ones which cover areas they're working in and so by being part of the consortium that owns them they're covering themselves against potential problems in the future. Once you're part of consortium, you might as well be part of the group looking for potential infringers. It behoves you to protect your investment and it provides potential ways to protect yourself in the future by being able to force cross-licensing deals if it turns out that you're infringing on someone else's patent(s) - these are supposed to be fairly fundamental patents so there's a good chance that who ever is suing you is going to be infringing on one of them, or else licensing it already. This is a far better article about it - http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/rockstar/all/1 http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/rockstar/all/1