Apple noses out rest in the smartphone patent war

Apple noses out rest in the smartphone patent war

The patent in question, ‘647, relates to technology that helps users clicking on phone numbers and other types of data in a document, such as an email, to either dial directly or click on the data to bring up more information.

As it is widely used in almost all smartphones, industry experts foresee similar rulings should Apple bring other cases.

"With this ITC ruling, I think other phone companies are all scratching their heads now as to how to resolve the same technology they are using," said Melvin Li, a Hong Kong-based patent agent and counsel consultant at U.S. IP law firm Heslin Rothenberg
Farley & Mesitic PC.

Li said he expected courts in other jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia and Europe to rule similarly on the patent.

Smartphone and tablet technology has already spawned a wealth of patent litigation.

HTC has countersued Apple and is also fighting a patent case in Germany. Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility also have lawsuits against each other.

Apple’s battle with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which also uses Android software and is a supplier as well as competitor, has been especially bitter, with some 30 legal cases in 10 countries.

Apple’s founder, the late Steve Jobs, was quoted in his biography as saying that he was going to "destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

But the Android system dominates the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan smartphone market with a 53 percent share this year versus 15 percent for Apple’s iOS, according to technology research company IDC, and Android is not likely to lose much ground.

"We still expect a lot of momentum around Android and especially with Ice Cream Sandwich out now," said Bryan Ma, a Singapore-based analyst with IDC, referring to the name for the latest version of Android. "It’s not really a lawsuit issue. Those are going
to continue on the background anyway."

Apple had initially accused HTC of infringing 10 patents, but six were dropped from the case. The ITC judge then issued a preliminary ruling that HTC infringed two of the remaining four before issuing the final ruling on one patent.

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Posted by Hassan Ali on Dec 20 2011. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry