That's exactly what Lodsys would like. If Joe Startup sees a patent lawsuit and Apple is offering to pay the bills, heck yeah, just let them take care of it. In which case, all the money likely goes to a patent troll for them to scoop up more and repeat the cycle.
Wrong. Lodsys would like the little devs to pay the license fees and possibly settle after Lodsys sues them.
Having a defense fund would force Lodsys to actually do more than put up a front and go and sue each licensee... this becomes much much more costly either in time (serial cases) or money (parallel cases).
If both Lodsys and Apple go head to head in the courts, then it really comes down to a game of attrition. Who has the most cash to pay the attorneys. Even if Lodsys is run by attorneys, and the principals work free, they still have to pay everyone else.
Lodsys can't outpay Apple. They just don't have the cash. So it should be a deterrent.
