Bookmark this page: this is where our cut-out-and-keep diagram will live. The latest instalment: a litigious company adds to its pile of patent infringement claims
They seem never-ending - and it might be that the smartphone patent wars are going to continue until the earth is swallowed by the sun. There's even the possibility that by that time, every company on earth will be involved in them.
The latest to join the fray is a company called SmartPhone Technologies, which has filed a suit in the Eastern District Court in Texas (famous as the place where would-be giant-killers holding patents file suits).
Cited as defendants in the suit are HTC (in its various guises, including a company called Exedea which is a wholly-owned subsidiary), Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Kyocera.
I know - Kyocera still makes smartphones? That was my reaction too. But the lawsuit relates to older ones.
The 25-page complaint starts out with the claim that "SmartPhone is the exclusive licensee of the '275 patent, entitled 'Method And System For Single-Step Enablement Of Telephony Functionality For A Portable Computer System'."
SmartPhone, based in Houston, says that the patent is infringed by Nokia's E71, Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10, Kyocera's Zio,
It also lays claim to a patent called "Power-Conserving Intuitive Device Discovery Technique In A Bluetooth Environment", which it says is infringed by HTC's Hero smartphone, plus the Nokia E71, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, and Kyocera Zio.
And so on.
It's all laid out above in our not-even-close-to-a-design-award-winning graphic (known internally as "explosion in a spear factory").
The Economist wrote about the smartphone patent wars in October, when it noted that
"HISTORY buffs still wax poetic about the brutal patent battles a century ago between the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss, another aviation pioneer. The current smart-phone patent war does not quite have the same romance, but it could be as important"
and that
"Since 2006 the number of mobile-phone-related patent complaints has increased by 20% annually, according to Lex Machina, a firm that keeps a database of intellectual-property spats in America."
Its conclusion?
"essimists predict an everlasting patent war, much as the wider information-technology industry seems permanently embroiled in antitrust action. The Wright brothers' legal skirmishes were put to rest only by the outbreak of the first world war. With luck, the smart-phone patent battles will end more quietly."
To which we'd say: don't count on it.
Note: we'll aim to make this the permanent page for this graphic, and the lawsuits relating to it. If you know of new lawsuits, or if any of these have been settled, please tell us in the comments.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/nov/01/smartphone-patent-lawsuits-diagram
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