Smartphone patent wars

The smartphone wars or smartphone patents licensing and litigation is an ongoing business battle by smartphone manufacturers including Sony Mobile, Google, Apple Inc., Samsung, Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, Huawei, LG Electronics, ZTE and HTC, among others, in patent litigation. The conflict is part of the wider "patent wars" between multinational technology and software corporations. The patent wars occurred because a finished smartphone might involve hundreds of thousands of patents.

To secure and increase market share, companies granted a patent can sue to prevent competitors from using the methods the patent covers. Since 2010 the number of lawsuits, counter-suits, and trade complaints based on patents and designs in the market for smartphones, and devices based on smartphone OSes such as Android and iOS, has increased significantly.

Initial suits, countersuits, rulings, licence agreements, and other major events in italics:

The pattern of suing and countersuing really began in 2009 as the smartphone market grew more rapidly.

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