Apple's Legal Fees Rumored to Top $100M on HTC Patent Dispute Alone

[wikus]

If Apple fails to protect their intellectual property in court, they in effect lose the right to do so. If you invented something that enriched your company, how would you feel if someone ripped you off?

What Apple spends on legal fees is likely chump change compared to the rest of their operating expenses. It won't materially impact their cash on hand.

Peace,
Gene Steinberg
Host/Executive Producer,
The Tech Night Owl LIVE

You honestly think apple is going to be in some kind of financial crisis anytime soon? I havent heard of a single time where Apple has done something noble to give back. Theyve got the highest prices for generic products, aka the apple tax. Theyve got a lot of money to burn, these legal fees, most of which have been LOST is clear evidence.

Apple *is* the new Microsoft of the 1990s.

 

[iPhisch]

you know what they get out of it? publicity.

 

[iBug2]

Apple *is* the new Microsoft of the 1990s.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Microsoft had its best moments in the 90's.

 

[wikus]

You say that like it's a bad thing. Microsoft had its best moments in the 90's.

Yeah and the consumer (you, me and everyone else) got the shaft.

The only one that benefits from this is Apple. Apple doesnt give a damn about satisfying consumers, they only care about profits.

 

[steve2112]

This just goes back to Steve Jobs' irrational hatred for Android. He said he wanted to destroy them, and this is proof of it. Microsoft made licensing deals with most of the Android OEMs and dropped their lawsuits. Apple has so far refused to do so. Licensing agreements are how most companies end up settling deals like this. Microsoft gets a few bucks per device sold, the OEM gets a few bucks, and everyone is happy. I guess instead of making a few easy bucks, Apple would rather waste money on long, drawn-out, legal battles.

 

[gpat]

Can you imagine a world without lawyers?

 

[pdjudd]

You honestly think apple is going to be in some kind of financial crisis anytime soon?

You miss the point. Apple has an obligation to protect their IP - shareholders demand such an action. Part of business is to identify and protect against external threats and one of those is IP infringement. If Apple doesn't protect itself, all of their innovative actions are pretty much worthless. Think about it this way - would you bother to create something (at a significant financial and personal hardship) that could potentially benefit lots of people and could make you lots of money if you knew that such an innovation would get shamelessly ripped off leaving you with nothing to speak of?

ETA:

I'm sure they're spending loads of cash on legal cases.

First Gene, I like your weekly show.

Second - Apple's legal costs are going to be high no matter what. Like most profitable and successful companies out there, Apple faces tons of legal actions - much of it simply due to the fact that people want to get money out of them. Even if Lyons number is accurate (which I doubt), it doesn't reflect the whole picture.

 

[voonyx]

Yeah and the consumer (you, me and everyone else) got the shaft.

The only one that benefits from this is Apple. Apple doesnt give a damn about satisfying consumers, they only care about profits.

I know, right? All those millions of dissatisfied Apple customers!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20108336-17/apple-tops-in-customer-satisfaction-for-8th-year/

http://mashable.com/2011/09/09/apple-customer-satisfaction-survey/

http://www.intomobile.com/2011/12/22/apple-ipad-garners-84-customer-satisfaction-rating-survey/

 

[Consultant]

Dan Lyons's record is almost always wrong. For example SCO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lyons#Work_as_technology_analyst

 

[bocomo]

I hear ya. Apple really, really needs to stop being a patent troll. I can't help but to feel less-than-happy when using their gear simply because of how childish they act. They can do so much better if they'd just be a little more mature.

they're all suing each other

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/infographic-whos-suing-who-in-mobile-10120/

 

[theheadguy]

Sigh, I remember a time when tripe like this would never make it to MR. Seriously, a story about Apple's $100M fees where the number is made up by a 'journalist' and the story quotes the 'journalist' saying 'whether the $100 million figure is accurate doesn't really matter'.

In all fairness, there was a time when Apple didn't have the patents nor the money to engage in this type of worldwide legal warfare. So, it makes sense that it didn't make it onto MR.

 

[vrDrew]

The US, and every other industrialized country, spends hundreds of billions each year on law enforcement: cops, prosecutors, courts, and prisons.

And yet we still have crime. Was that money "wasted"?

Of course not. The purpose is not just to punish those who get caught - but act as a deterrent to every other person who might otherwise be tempted to do a little burglary or embezzlement.

Its the same thing with legal fees. Apple makes something like a billion dollars a month in profit (not revenue) from the iPhone. Do you think its not worth spending 3 days worth of profits, if it helps deter, or delay, competitors from ripping off their designs?

How much did HTC spend defending their product? How much extra time did their engineers (and Samsung's, and Google's) spend working on code so as not to come too close to Apple's designs?

Look further down the road: Is it possible that all these patent lawsuits (including Microsoft's against HTC) aren't going to make it that much more likely that cellphone makers are going to consider using Windows Phone? (Hint, Apple will do just fine in a three or four OS horserace. Apple would be in trouble if everyone else settled on Android.)

Patents, at their core, are all about time. If someone comes up with the greatest tech in the world, and patents it, that 14 year clock starts ticking immediately - after which its free and open to anyone. In the smartphone business, things move even faster. Today's gee-whiz interface and technology is old news three years from now. And if Apple, by dint of its assertive legal strategy, can keep its would-be competitors off balance for six months or a year while their legal case unfolds - then thats money well spent.

 

[MacSince1990]

Oh, Apple. I could have gotten you the same results, and charged only a FRACTION of the price! And I don't even have a law degree

 

[Bubba Satori]

...probably because back then MacRumours had stories about Apple Macs, it wasn't "all Itoys all the time".

+1

It's turned into an iToy cheerleading squad standing on the shoulders
of Apple Insider and Macworld with MacLife and all the other silly
fansites at the bottom of the pyramid. What a sad spectacle.

 

[cmwade77]

You know everyone (consumers and manufacturers) would benefit if all of these companies would just say, "You can use our patents, if we can use yours."

 

[MacSince1990]

+1

It's turned into an iToy cheerleading squad standing on the shoulders
of Apple Insider and Macworld with MacLife and all the other silly
fansites at the bottom of the pyramid. What a sad spectacle.

A bit depressing. That seems to happen to all Apple sites.. Anyone remember SpyMac? I joined that in 2001 or something... way before the Intel switch, it went to the dogs around 2006.

 

[HelveticaRoman]

Sigh, I remember a time when tripe like this would never make it to MR. '.

That was when there used to be rumours about new macs. Now its all just telephones and lawsuits.

 

[MacSince1990]

That was when there used to be rumours about new macs. Now its all just telephones.

Agreed. Although atm there is scarce little news on anything related to macs...

 

[wikus]

That was when there used to be rumours about new macs. Now its all just telephones and lawsuits.

Apple's focus on Macs has also gone down the crapper. The Mac Pros get very little attention, they used to be awesome machines with constant updates from Apple, now theyre updated once every 18 months.

 

[Rocketman]

The US, and every other industrialized country, spends hundreds of billions each year on law enforcement: cops, prosecutors, courts, and prisons.

And yet we still have crime. Was that money "wasted"?

Yes. 70% of it.

However since none of us have facts and we know Apple uses both internal legal staff and external firms in these efforts, I wonder just how much stuff is handled by teams of legal minions on a salary and how much is done by the more money intensive partner types.

Rocketman

 

[doramjan]

80 billion in cash?

That's only a 8742 kilometer tall stack of $1 bills. Surely they can donate a few kilometers to some patent litigators...

 

[charlituna]

Isn't Lyons the one that has been going on crazy anti-Apple diatribes for the last 2 years?

I was about to ask the same thing. And I think the answer is yes.

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If Apple fails to protect their intellectual property in court, they in effect lose the right to do so.

THere's no 'in effect' about it, they just lose the right. The catch is that it doesn't matter what they see as a violation but whether what the court does. Apple might feel that Android's little app drawer that looks like the iOS dock isn't a violation but a judge might and thus Apple failed to protect that IP and it can bite them in the butt.

And then having been bitten and having lost their patent, trademark or whatever someone else could come in and get protection on it and then sue Apple for a violation.

----------

Considering how much cash Apple has right now and how much it's wasting on these legal battles

Pretty much every company is filing just as many law suits and spending just as much money, without having an Apple level of cash in the bank.

We don't hear about it because those companies don't get the hit count that Apple does and thus the sites have less of a reason to give them hourly attention

 

[*LTD*]

A drop in the bucket. Apple recoups that several times over every quarter.

Every cent Apple spends asserting their rights is money well spent. Every cent is an act of protecting their brand, and that in turn contributes (and *has* contributed) to their ridiculous success.

 

[LagunaSol]

Dan Lyons? Newsweek? Non-credibility x 2.

 

[louis Fashion]

Severn Maryland

That was when there used to be rumours about new macs. Now its all just telephones and lawsuits.

And new stores in countries I will not visit.