Apple’s patent-infringement lawsuit against HTC came like a bolt from the blue, and the technology community is still buzzing about it. After nearly a week to digest the news, many pundits and analysts have concluded that it’s really less about HTC, the handset maker, than Google, the search giant whose tentacles have been steadily expanding around other sectors of the industry, including many that could pose a threat to Apple. Enterprise Mobile Today reports on the various interpretations of Apple’s patent suit against HTC, and the implications for Google.
The patent-infringement lawsuit Apple filed against HTC on Monday caught the entire industry off guard, and has left plenty in the tech press and blogosphere accusing the firm of using HTC as a proxy to attack Google, widely seen as Apple’s real enemy.
One thing that made the lawsuit so unusual is that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is not a company known for initiating patent litigation. It will countersue, as it did with Nokia, but when it comes to taking the initiative, it’s not an Apple habit. Its last patent-infringement lawsuit came in 1988 against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) over the look and feel of Windows.
But there is no mistaking that this is Apple on the offensive. It filed suit in district court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
