Believe me, I'd love to give these guys bad press--TechCrunch or Gawker could do a nice story at their expense. But that's my friend's decision to make, not mine. The last thing I want to do is undermine his defense.
Keep in mind that those who silently capitulate don't just hurt themselves, they hurt all those who the companies go after later... and effectively, all of us.
Yes, but legal maneuverings are incredibly sensitive things, and anything officially entered into the public record becomes evidence. It's generally not a matter of silently capitulating, but if you want to fight back and have any hope of winning, you have to play by the rules.
I'm in exactly the same situation and it's incredibly frustrating, but the alternative is to open your mouth and potentially undermine your legal defense. About the best you can do is to fight the lawsuit to the best of your abilities, but that unfortunately requires that you route all public communication through your lawyers.
Also, my friend is reading this page, and I hope he'll reach out to folks who have volunteered to help. Bad patents hurt everyone--you never know if you'll be the next victim. Regardless of your stance on software patents in general, I hope you agree that that there are a lot of invalid software patents out there, and that their holders are wreaking havoc by what amounts to legalized extortion.