Apple Gets Ready For Patent Showdown
December 2nd, 2010 | by Mobile Data Group |Steve Jobs made Apple’s iPhone one of the best-selling smartphones on the market with its touchscreen, fast web connection and access to more than 300,000 downloadable applications. Now he’s adding lawyers to the mix.
Apple is squaring off this week against Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, before the International Trade Commission. The dispute, in which each side alleges intellectual property violations, is also a precursor to Apple patent battles with Motorola and HTC.
At stake is leadership in the US smartphone market. Cupertino, California-based Apple is trying to protect its right to import the iPhone, while shutting out rivals, particularly those with devices powered by Google’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, an attorney at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Washington, who handles cases before the commission. “Usually you have one 800-pound gorilla going after a new entrant. Here you’ve got 800-pound gorillas fighting each other.”
Apple has been the most-sued technology company since 2008, the year after the iPhone was introduced, topping Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, according to LegalMetric, a compiler of litigation data based in St. Louis.