On Tuesday Apple, Inc. filed a 10-patent lawsuit against High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) in the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware. Apple also filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging infringement of another 10 patents. A combined 20-patent lawsuit by one of the giants of the mobile space, Apple, is no laughing matter. Some may not be entirely familiar with HTC. Known mostly for making handsets that employ either Windows Mobile or the Android operating system, HTC presents an interesting target for Apple.
Apple is sending a very clear message: they are in the mobile space, they intend to stay, and they aren’t afraid of getting dirty.
The alleged infringement is a direct result of HTC using Google’s Android operating system on some of its more popular phones such as the Nexus One, Droid Eris, and G1. Apple includes phones running the Windows Mobile operating system in their ITC complaint only because they allegedly violate Patent #6,343,263. There are a few interesting trends worth noting.
First is that this is essentially one giant shot across Google’s bow. Google isn’t a named party in the suit but 19 of the 20 claims deal directly with the Android operating system. HTC is the perfect target for Apple to try to win this battle. They represent WWII England’s (Google) France; you take down the easy enemy to get a better [legal] foothold to mount your larger attack against the more difficult enemy. This also further marks the degradation of the relationship between Apple and Google. Eric Schmidt used to sit on Apple’s Board. That ended in August of 2009. Google didn’t really compete with Apple in the mobile space, at least not seriously until the recent release of Android phones. More importantly, Google didn’t directly compete with Apple in the hardware space until this January.
The second trend is the relatively recent emergence of major patent lawsuits in the mobile space, all centered around Apple. In October, Nokia filed a 10-patent suit against Apple alleging infringement of a variety of GSM-related patents by Apple’s extremely popular (and profitable) iPhone. Apple fired back with a countersuit alleging Nokia is infringing some of Apple’s patents. It’s worth taking a step back and looking at the situation in which Apple now finds itself. It is on the receiving end of a 10-patent suit from Nokia in both Federal Court and the ITC. It is countersuing Nokia for infringement of 13 patents in similar venues. Apple is the aggressor in a 20-patent suit ostensibly against HTC but really as a proxy against Google.
That is a lot of high-dollar patent litigation for any company to be involved in, especially for one that is a relative newcomer to this market. Granted, all of these suits could settle tomorrow or play out over the next 10-20 years in various courts. Apple is sending a very clear message in all of this: they are in the mobile space, they intend to stay, and they aren’t afraid of getting dirty.
The real, and final, question mark in all of this is what does Google do? If a court finds HTC infringing they are essentially finding Google infringing. This would be a major blow to the Android operating system and Google’s foray into the mobile space. So far, Google has said only that they stand behind their operating system and their partners. That statement begs the question of how much, if at all, Google will help HTC foot their future legal bills stemming from HTC's use of Android. Further, if Google truly wants to fight back, they will exercise FRCP Rule 20 and enter the suit on the side of HTC to protect Android's market share.
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