Apple yesterday issued a statement announcing a lawsuit against Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC for iPhone patent infringements. HTC was the first company to produce phones which ran the Android operating system and recently partnered with Google to produce the Nexus One.
This is a fairly unprecedented move by Apple and to our knowledge the first time that they have initiated a direct lawsuit against a major competitor. Although Apple have chosen to serve HTC it would seem that it is Google’s Android operating system that is the real target here.
Apple today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” - Apple PR
A Apple is claiming is over at Engadget. Apple is clearly targeting HTC’s Android devices with a list of patents that range from deep OS-level functionality to user interface features. Here’s Engadget commenting on the list of patents:
As of right now, it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen in this case - Apple and HTC could settle tomorrow, or it could turn into a ten year courtroom monster. But what we do know is that Apple’s specifically gone after HTC’s Android devices, and it’s organized its attack very carefully: it’s gone before the ITC with a collection of older patents on very deep OS-level functionality, which traditionally would be considered stronger patents, and it’s gone before the federal court with a different set of patents that include some very new claims on user interface features. Both courts have the ability to stop HTC from selling devices and issuing fines, but none of that is going to happen anytime soon. The real question now is how HTC is going to respond — and whether or not Google is going to get involved.
Google have in fact already got involved with statement sent to . This is another fairly unprecedented move as it’s very rare that a company will contact the press with a supporting statement for a lawsuit that it’s not even involved in:
We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it - Google
We noted recently that both Apple and Google’s activities in the mobile arena are bringing the two companies into ever closer direct competition. A lawsuit which targets Android is big news for the industry as observed by the Apple Blog:
The flurry of patent lawsuits and counter-lawsuits is something of an anomaly, in that companies like Apple, HTC, and Nokia normally use their massive patent portfolios to protect themselves from litigation. It’s like the concept of nuclear weapon stockpiles and mutually assured destruction (MAD), but with lawyers. What’s got Apple and others pushing the red button now is nothing less than the future of personal computing. As portability moves from the laptop to the handheld, companies like Apple apparently feel the potential legal fallout is worth the risk.
We knew that 2010 was going to be an exciting year for mobile computing, but we were thinking more in terms of technological developments than patent wars. There’s a lot a stake here for the respected companies involved, and Apple obviously feels threatened enough by the rise of Android to go ahead and ‘press the red button’. Respected Apple commentator John Gruber has already expressed reservations over the wisdom of Apple’s move.
I can’t speak to the hardware and “architecture” issues, but I despise the idea of “user interface” patents.
If you can’t beat ’em, sue ’em - I feel this suit against HTC is a terrible mistake.
Eric Von Hippel, a professor of technological innovation at MIT comments that patent lawsuits are always bad for consumers in the end. Whilst they may protect the revenue streams of the companies in question they stifle innovation and decrease choice.
It’s a bad scene right now. The social value of patents was supposed to be to encourage innovation - that’s what society gets out of it. The net effect is that they decrease innovation, and in the end, the public loses out.
This is likely to get interesting, especially if Google throws it’s weight behind HTC, something which they eluded to in their statement to TechCrunch. Exactly how this will play out is yet to be seen but it’s likely to be a lengthy legal battle which will have a significant impact on future developments in mobile computing.
