Apple vs. HTC: Power Of The Patent Numbers
A Deutsche Bank analysis of yearly patent filings by Apple (AAPL), HTC and Google (GOOG) reveals that Apple is by far the leader and HTC the laggard. Over the past few years, Apple has amassed some 3,000 patents, HTC just 58.
“HTC has had comparatively few patent filings leading up to the introduction of the original iPhone in June 2007,” Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore explained in a note to clients this past weekend. “Specifically, HTC filed zero patents with the US Patent office between 2004 and 2007 while Apple filed 507 and Google filed 67 over the same period.”
But that huge pile of patents might not matter in the long run… check out what Nilay Patel from Engadget had to say in response to John based on his own patent expertise:
“Hey, just caught your piece on HTC’s patent portfolio. It’s interesting, and I agree with your reasoning on why Apple chose HTC over, say, Motorola, which has 1000s of patents, but remember that Apple’s entire portfolio doesn’t really matter here–it only picked 20 to litigate, and it only has to win one claim. Similarly, HTC only has to find one of its 58 patents that the iPhone infringes, which isn’t necessarily impossible since HTC’s portfolio is probably entirely mobile-oriented. I’m sure HTC will countersue here–it’s basically standard practice in this type of suit. I’d also expect Google to be named sooner rather than later–there’s no way HTC’s contract with Google doesn’t have a rock-solid indemnification clause.”
This is like the Cold War of tech patents although once you get into the semantics of which company is which country it can get a little sticky… especially depending on where your allegiances lay. Thankfully I’m not the one who has to make final legal decisions based on all this because there is a LOT at “steak” in this beef. <— (See what I did there?)