They've certainly tried to against Microsoft but they failed. Microsoft and Apple were required by the government to license their standards related patents under reasonable terms to anyone before this Nortel patent portfolio buy was cleared. As far as I know none of them are trying to sue over SEPs. I don't even think this lawsuit contains patents related to standards, but it's kind of a moot point because no company actually has a controlling interest in Rockstar. It's all John Veschi and other former Nortel employees who run their company.
I find your username amusing given the context of this thread.
IBM could stand to make some money by licencing out some of their patents as they have done in the past:
Incidentally if anyone is told their work is to be patented and will only be used in defense - bear the above behaviour in mind, over time, companies will not just use patents in defense.
Ha, it seems I'm a bit late to make that prediction - it's already happened.
http://allthingsd.com/20130905/microsoft-trounces-google-in-...