Apple Has Spent More Than $100 Million Suing Android Manufacturers

Diggester writes with an excerpt from an article at Gizmocrazed about the absurd amount of money Apple has spent suing HTC et al: "The never-ending war on Android has cost Apple more than $100 million, according to latest estimates. While a huge chunk of that money was spent (read wasted) in claims against HTC. So far, 84 claims have been filed against different Android manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, etc.) for patent infringements, out of which only 10 were proved to have been infringed and only one ruling has gone in Apple's favor."

Comments

Does not compute

[Anonymous Coward]

So far, 84 claims have been filed against different Android manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, etc.) for patent infringements, out of which only 10 were proved to have been infringed and only one ruling has gone in Apple's favor."

WTH? What happened in the 9 cases where the patent was proven to be infringed but the ruling didn't go in Apple's favour?

Re:Does not compute

[mjwx]

So far, 84 claims have been filed against different Android manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, etc.) for patent infringements, out of which only 10 were proved to have been infringed and only one ruling has gone in Apple's favor."

WTH? What happened in the 9 cases where the patent was proven to be infringed but the ruling didn't go in Apple's favour?

They made minor changes to the software as per court orders.

What you have to remember is that Apple are so afraid of Android that they are suing over anything and everything no matter how petty.

Re:1 ruling in favor vs. $100M

[Lambeco]

Question is - how much money did they won from that one ruling in favor ?

Any compensation awarded to Apple in these cases is purely icing, and a molecule in the bucket compared to Apple's capital. This is about protecting their brand, trademarks and image. And as we all know, Apple will go to any lengths to do so.

Re:So much for returns.

[tripleevenfall]

Microsoft's mobile business essentially IS extorting money from Android manufacturers to indemnify themselves against litigation, I'm not sure why Apple wouldn't try their hand at it too.

Money not necessarily 'wasted'

[DickBreath]

A patent troll might consider that money a wise investment, even if it results in a court loss. It still creates Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD).

Also, going to court is always a risk. There is some chance that no matter how ridiculous its claims, Apple might win on some minor points, or even some major ones.

Consider this: Apple's Dutch Galaxy Tab ban shot down by The Hague

From that article:

After presiding over wrangles regarding the exact appearance of the two tablets and a thorough discussion of features such as dotted lines, screen icons and thickness of the device, the Dutch judge concluded that the Samsung Tablet gave a different overall impression to Apple's iPad.

Yes folks. Money spent to argue over dotted lines and thickness of the device.

Yes. Thickness of the device. A reasonable design goal to anyone.

That's like arguing infringement of a sports car design based on "goes fast".

Re:Money not necessarily 'wasted'

[Skarecrow77]

at least they looked at the devices. If I recall, Germany provided an initial injunction based on a heavily photoshopped picture, provided by apple, showing the ipad vs galaxy tab that had the tab's dimensions grossly distorted and a non-standard home screen manipulated to appear as close to the ipad as possible.

The car equivilent wouldn't be "goes fast" it would be ferrari showing a simple photo of an F40 next to a lamborghini where the lambo's body has been completely removed and replaced with an F40 look-alike, painted with a ferrari factory color, and had ferrari-esque badges slapped on... except the whole lambo conversion was done by ferrari themselves in order to misrepresent the true appearance of the original car.

Re:1 ruling in favor vs. $100M

[nomadic]

This is about Steve Jobs throwing a tantrum because Google had the audacity to try and compete with the iphone with Android.

Re:1 ruling in favor vs. $100M

[Qzukk]

The real question is: how much money did all the lawsuits (winning or not) cost the competitors?

Re:1 ruling in favor vs. $100M

[Citizen of Earth]

This is about protecting their brand, trademarks and image.

Not really. It's about obstructing its competitors from bringing their phones to market. Apple figured out a year ago that its competitors have better phones than it does.

Re:1 ruling in favor vs. $100M

[psiclops]

Before the iPhone was first unveiled(January 2007) there was a phone (LG Prada) that actually did look a lot like an iPhone

LG Electronics has claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied the Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”[8]

Note: While the LG Prada was not released until after the iPhone, the design and concept were released before we saw any of this from Apple.

Re:1 ruling in favor vs. $100M

[artor3]

So you're saying that Apple should be able to trademark the rounded rectangle? That's stupid. Touchscreen devices, quite obviously, should try to maximize the size of the screen relative to the device. And anything that people must handle regularly shouldn't have sharp corners. The rounded rectangle is simply a case of form following function.

Also, at least one of those photos has been manipulated to make the Samsung phone look more like the iPhone. The Galaxy S and iPhone 3G have different dimensions, including different aspect ratios, yet they appear identical in the photo comparing them. Whoops! Newsflash... if you have to lie to prove your point, you don't have one.