Now that Apple has successfully built its iOS empire and is armed with multiple patents to defend the technology, the company is beefing up its arsenal with an army of patent lawyers to fight Nokia, Motorola and HTC in court.
Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that Apple will bring a fleet of patent attorneys to their side this week as the company faces off with Nokia before the International Trade Commission (ITC). Both companies have alleged violations of their intellectual property, and the battle is just heating up as similar complaints await with the likes of Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp.
“At stake is leadership in the U.S. smartphone market,” the report said. “Cupertino, California-based Apple is trying to protect its right to import the iPhone, while shutting out rivals, particularly those whose phones are powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system, the world’s most popular smartphone software. Android-based phones also are made abroad.”
“These are very well-known, deep-pocketed, high-end manufacturers,” said Lyle Vander Schaaf, a Washington attorney familiar with ITC cases such as these. “Usually you have one 800-pound gorilla going after a new entrant. Here you’ve got 800-pound gorillas fighting each other.”
According to legal data compiled by LegalMetric, Inc., since 2008, Apple has been the most-sued technology company -- a testament to the company’s runaway success with the iPhone, which was launched a year earlier. Now the company is fighting back “by recruiting lawyers who have fought for and against some of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp.”
“Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours,” proclaimed Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell nearly a year ago when the case against Nokia was first made public.
“Apple has hired some of the nation’s top patent lawyers as outside counsel,” the Bloomberg report revealed. “They include Robert Krupka of Kirkland & Ellis, who negotiated a 2005 settlement in which Apple agreed to pay $100 million to Creative Technology Ltd., maker of the Zen music player; William Lee of WilmerHale in Boston, who successfully represented Broadcom Corp. in its fight against Qualcomm; and Matt Powers of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, who successfully defended the patent on Merck & Co.’s biggest product, the $4.7 billion-a-year asthma drug Singulair.”
“The most likely outcome is that the companies agree to end the litigation by licensing each other’s patents,” concludes Rob Enderle, president of a technology consulting firm. Until then, “it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”
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