Apple filed two patent infringement lawsuits on Friday against Motorola over its devices built for Google’s open source Android mobile operating system.
“One lawsuit accuses Motorola of infringing on Apple’s multitouch patents,” reported Ars Technica’s Eric Bangeman. “The other targets Motorola’s alleged infringement of patents covering smartphone user interface elements.”
It seems like everyone’s suing everyone in the smartphone arena.
“With most of the major smartphone players wielding their own patent portfolios,” Bangeman said, “the handheld device market has become a very litigious place. Apple currently has lawsuits pending against Nokia and HTC in addition to Motorola. Meanwhile Motorola is facing legal actions initiated by RIM and IP holding company NTP–with the latter company having secured a $612.5 million settlement from the former after a long court battle.”