The Apple - HTC Beef

This brand new beef in the tech world promises to be one of the biggest ever if not the biggest. I woke up to the news that Steve Jobs, the C.E.O. of Apple, had expressed some concerns over HTC's recent products. His concerns in summary were that, though he appreciated competition, HTC was infringing on Apple's patents. His concerns have been translated into complaints filed with the US International Trade Commission and a district court in Delaware. You may wonder why Apple, a California company, will file a complaint in Delaware. Well, Delaware is like the Silicon Valley of the corporate world and all the big corporate wars are fought there. Again, which is why I am positive this beef promises to be one of biggest if not the biggest. 

So why am I interested in this beef? Well, I'll give you two reasons. Firstly, besides being an international lawyer with expertise in commercial litigation, I come from a generation where the average person owns an mp3 player and a smart phone. In my case, it gets more interesting because my smart phone is manufactured by HTC (HTC HD2) and my mp3 player is manufactured by Apple (Ipod). Secondly, you rarely hear Apple complain that its patents have been infringed on (at least in recent times). The headlines always read Apple is being sued for some patent infringement. I'll give you a few examples. At the moment, Apple is defending a suit brought by Fujitsu with regard to Apple's just launched iPad. Apple is also battling Nokia in the courts over touch screen patent infringement. Also, a few years back when the iPhone was released by Apple, it had to settle out of court with Siemens for patent infringement.

So what does Steve Jobs and Apple hope to achieve with this lawsuit? An injunction preventing HTC's infringing products from the US market. For readers who don't know, HTC is manufactured in Taiwan. So should Apple succeed in obtaining this injunction, HTC's market outside the US will not be affected. But will this happen, is the question on the minds of all commercial litigators? The stakeholders of HTC are key players in the tech world: Microsoft Windows Mobile, Google Android, Google and T-Mobile.

Again, I reiterate that this will be one of the biggest if not biggest beef in the tech world. Watch this space!

Written & Edited by

Kow A. Essuman Esq.

LL.B. Hons (Westminster); PgDip (BPP); LL.M. (Cornell).

Barrister-at-Law (Lincoln's Inn); Attorney & Counselor-at-Law (New York).

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kowessuman

Sent from my HTC HD2 device.