Apple 'Lawyering Up' as Patent Suits Grow

[MacRumors]

Bloomberg offers a look at Apple's involvement in numerous patent lawsuits, noting that the company is the most-targeted technology company for such actions since 2008 and reporting that Apple is bringing on board some of the industry's highest-profile lawyers to help defend it against the suits and pursue its own actions.

Apple has been the most-sued technology company since 2008, the year after the iPhone was introduced, topping Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., according to LegalMetric Inc., a compiler of litigation data based in St. Louis.

Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer, is firing back by recruiting lawyers who have fought for and against some of the world's largest companies, including Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp. Broadcom won a patent dispute with Qualcomm Inc. last year that ended with Qualcomm paying $891 million in cash over four years.

The report summarizes recent patent lawsuits involving Apple and such firms as Nokia, HTC and Motorola, specifically identifying some the top lawyers Apple has brought on as outside counsel to augment its own legal team headed by former Intel general counsel Bruce Sewell.

Apple has hired some of the nation's top patent lawyers as outside counsel. 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.

This year, Apple added an in-house attorney, Noreen Krall, to focus on intellectual property litigation. Krall had been chief IP counsel for Sun Microsystems Inc. and a staff attorney at International Business Machines Corp., according to the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

As the report notes, most patent lawsuits of the sort being filed by and against Apple are settled, with the companies reaching agreements on licensing their intellectual property. But considerable time, effort, and expense are being dedicated to the pursuit of these claims as each company seeks to defend its own position in the market and either bring down or benefit from the success of other major players.

Article Link: Apple 'Lawyering Up' as Patent Suits Grow

 

[Lone Deranger]

What a sad world we live in.

 

[kenypowa]

What a sad world we live in.

There is a reason why Apple products are much more expensive than others. Look at how much $$$ they are paying the lawyers.

 

[talkingfuture]

Being a patent lawyer in Cupertino must be a pretty lucrative job then.

 

[RebootD]

Dear Steve,

Welcome to the top of the pile.

- Steve B.

sent from my windows phone 7

 

[pmjoe]

No big surprise here:

1. Apple was a latecomer to the mobile phone business. Other companies have considerable patent portfolios in this area - Apple doesn't.
2. Apple thinks they "invented" multi-touch - Apple didn't.

I love my iPhone, but Apple didn't invent any of it, or if they did, their inventions were miniscule in the grand picture.

 

[ghostface147]

With 50 billion in the bank, I think they can afford a few lawyers.

 

[econgeek]

No big surprise here:

1. Apple was a latecomer to the mobile phone business. Other companies have considerable patent portfolios in this area - Apple doesn't.
2. Apple thinks they "invented" multi-touch - Apple didn't.

I love my iPhone, but Apple didn't invent any of it, or if they did, their inventions were miniscule in the grand picture.

Why do Apple bashers think that, after telling two outright lies about apple, they can say "I love my [apple product]" and we'll think they're being objective?

You don't appear to know anything about the situation, you're just here trolling.

 

[Mattsasa]

Yay, everybody sue the tech giant

 

[skeep5]

No big surprise here:

1. Apple was a latecomer to the mobile phone business. Other companies have considerable patent portfolios in this area - Apple doesn't.
2. Apple thinks they "invented" multi-touch - Apple didn't.

I love my iPhone, but Apple didn't invent any of it, or if they did, their inventions were miniscule in the grand picture.

They invented the glue that holds it all together

 

[shartypants]

Welcome to the 21st Century. Patent lawyers have job security.

 

[mrochester]

Why do Apple bashers think that, after telling two outright lies about apple, they can say "I love my [apple product]" and we'll think they're being objective?

You don't appear to know anything about the situation, you're just here trolling.

The trouble is, no one here knows what the situation is. Anyone who says that Apple hasn't violated any patents is just as clueless as anyone who says they have. If it was as clear cut as that, these cases wouldn't need to be heard.

 

[Žalgiris]

2. Apple thinks they "invented" multi-touch - Apple didn't.

Apple bought FingerWorks some time ago and they have patents on multiple multi-touch gestures. Multi-touch as a whole is everyones. Get you facts straight.

I love my iPhone,

No you don't.

 

[bassfingers]

Big News

This is bigger news than The Beatles

 

[ouimetnick]

Why do Apple bashers think that, after telling two outright lies about apple, they can say "I love my [apple product]" and we'll think they're being objective?

You don't appear to know anything about the situation, you're just here trolling.

Right exept I could have sworn I read somewhere Apple didn't invent multi touch. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[Consultant]

Apple needs to do some smack down with patent trolls.

 

[paul4339]

Right exept I could have sworn I read somewhere Apple didn't invent multi touch. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Wayne Westerman and others were pioneers of multi-gesture. He founded Fingerworks, sold out to Apple, and now works for Apple. Apple holds whatever IP fingerworks had (I think).


P.

 

[cmaier]

They still haven't hired silicon valley's best patent litigator

 

[guzhogi]

I love my iPhone

No you don't.

For some reason, that reminded me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu8M6M0SSwg&feature=related

They still haven't hired silicon valley's best patent litigator

Would that be you?

 

[Žalgiris]

For some reason, that reminded me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu8M6M0SSwg&feature=related

That was more than funny, thanks.

 

[Snowcat001]

2011.... the year of the settled patent suits?

 

[HLdan]

Dear Steve,

Welcome to the top of the pile.

- Steve B.

sent from my windows phone 7...BEFORE IT CRASHES

Uh, you missed a few words, had to fix it.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

There is a reason why Apple products are much more expensive than others. Look at how much $$$ they are paying the lawyers.

Most Apple products are priced highly competitively, even considering the extremely high build and interface quality of those products. Only the computers come to mind as an example of a product which might be more expensive than somewhat comparable competing commercial products, and even in those cases the build quality is never comparable.

 

[Tones2]

Hopefully this whole thing will result in everyone realizing how absolutely ridiculous the current state of Patent law is, and trigger some kind of patent reform initiative.

Tony

 

[kas23]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

It is well known that Apple spends relatively little in R & D compared to others. I wonder how much they spend in legal fees.