It will be interesting to see what will come put of the lawsuit, however, I don't know whether its a smart move by the company to claim that the code behind the software is theirs since the software doesn't work well. (I don't see a chance of them getting any money from the lawsuit)
The company filing the suit (Cybersitter) promotes its software as a "family friendly parental controls" product that keeps kids "safe on the Internet." The company tagline is "Protecting Kids and Families for 14 Years."(http://www.cybersitter.com/)
Now, I am not saying that this is not an opportunistic suit and I don't pretend to know the technology. The way I read the facts, however, is that Chinese software developers are alleged to have stolen some of the code from Cybersitter's product and incorporated it into their software product which is in turn used by various computer manufacturers to comply with the Chinese government's dictate that all sorts of web information be blocked from the view of Chinese citizens.
If I understand this correctly, the U.S. company has no connection with the Green Dam product (i.e., the offending product containing the allegedly stolen code) other than claiming that a key portion of its code was ripped off in order to develop it illegally. This would not make them culpable in the censorship or the oppression. It is as if someone broke into my home, stole my knife, and (using my property) killed someone with it.
Of course, the chances of recovering anything from the Chinese government or from the Chinese developers are nil.
The key to the lawsuit, and the obviously opportunistic part of it, comes in trying to get money from hardware vendors as alleged conspirators in the infringement alleged to have occurred. This is pretty aggressive and may even be sleazy, but it does appear to be the strategy.
