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Phone patent litigation

The volume of litigation between developers of third-generation phone-computers exploded in 2010.

Note: These cases are usually a mix of hardware patents and software patents. Distinguishing the two can be time-consuming, so it's possible that this page (and this wiki) erroneously lists some litigation about hardware patents (which are of no interest to this wiki). Help and review is very welcome.

As well as filing litigation in the courts, many cases were filed with the United States International Trade Commission to block imports and exports. No such blocks have yet been put in place (as of August 2010).

Why so much litigation?

Some factors are obvious: high-tech phones are a new, growing market.

Another factor might be that this new market mixes together software and hardware companies that haven't dealt with each other directly before. For this reason, the companies involved don't have existing patent non-aggression pacts with each other.

Lawsuits filed

Just a selection. More can be found among the general list at List of lawsuits.

Oldest first:

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

Diagrams of all the litigation

References