In an apparent "enemy-of-my-enemy" twist in the escalating intellectual property war between tech giants over mobile technology, HTC on Tuesday sued Apple for patent infringement in a Delaware court, citing patents recently obtained from Google.
HTC amended a complaint to charge Apple with infringing eight U.S. patents pertaining to wireless communications and mobile phone displays, according to reports. Five of the patents cited had been assigned to HTC by Google last week.
The other three patents had already been cited in HTC's original complaint filed in August and had nothing to do with Google, which makes the Android mobile operating system that is used by HTC and other device manufacturers in smartphones and tablets that compete with Apple's in-house iOS-based iPhone and iPad.
HTC has also amended a separate complaint against Apple filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission to include the five patents obtained by Google, which has confirmed that it has assigned the patents in question to HTC.
Apple is currently embroiled in several legal battles over intellectual property related to mobile technology for smartphones and tablets. The Cupertino, Calif.-based computing giant has targeted HTC, Samsung, and other device makers with allegations of patent infringement, though those suits have been described as peripheral battles to the "open war" being waged between Apple and Google.
Aside from the litigation, the Google-Apple tilt has also developed into a war of words. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has claimed that Apple is "suing instead of innovating," while an Apple spokesperson said of HTC's legal assist from Google Tuesday that "competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
Google, stymied in its bid to acquire 6,000 wireless technology patents held by Nortel in June, is believed to have performed a bit of an end-around on the alleged "consortium" of tech rivals that beat it to the Nortel patents when the search giant announced plans in mid-August to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.
That deal, which would enrich Google with the mobile technology patents it so clearly covets to take on Apple, still awaits approval from regulators. But the search giant's gifting of patents to bolster HTC's case against Apple demonstrates that Google has more than one trick up its sleeve.
Patent Reform Before U.S. Senate Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is expected to pass some form of patent reform in the next few days that could potentially change the landscape for the current intellectual property battles that some observers feel are stifling true innovation and competition in the tech sector.
"Patent reform is long overdue in the U.S., where innovation holds the keys to our economic recovery, as well as to our long term, global competitiveness," said patent attorney and IP Street founder Lewis Lee, whose firm Lee & Hayes represents six of the 20 largest patent filers in the U.S., regarding patent reform being considered by the Senate.
"The timing couldn't be more urgent, because China has made bold moves in the past few years to overtake the U.S. on every innovation measure before the decade is out, and just this year surpassed the U.S. on the number of patent filings," Lee said.
But the patent attorney did not hold out hope that the legislation before the Senate would do much to address such challenges in its current iteration.
"[The bill] will not help the U.S. overcome the China challenge, and only marginally addresses some longstanding issues like patent office funding," he said. "If the [U.S. Patent and Trademark Office] can truly reinvest all of the fees it charges filers then the net effect should be a patent system that is more agile and scalable.
"Despite the incremental improvements in this bill, it leaves the hard work for future Congresses. It fails to address secrecy, one of the most unsettling features of our patent system today. Although the U.S. has the most transparent economic engine in the world, patent ownership remains opaque. Far too many patents are owned by entities that conceal their true identities, making it difficult to efficiently trade patents as real property. This is a significant roadblock to the U.S. retaining its No. 1 status as the most trusted, transparent place to manage intellectual assets, and can only be addressed by more legislation.
Source:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392612,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05039TX1K0000760
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