Android Apple patent war, who do you favor?

If you want to talk about the world’s hottest products in 2011, I’m afraid it’s none other than Android. The sudden emergence of the Android system has attracted many manufacturers and developers with its free and open source features, so that a wide variety of Android mobile phones and tablet PCs appear in front of the public. As the saying goes, the hot popularity of Android has attracted competitors in the same industry. In order to safeguard their interests and contain Android's emerging power, some companies have started to suppress Android products in the name of “patent”, and according to the current situation Android camp is in an unfavorable situation.

The first shot of the patent war is Apple. In August 2011, Apple sued Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet PC in Germany for infringement of its patents. A few days later, the District Court in Düsseldorf, Germany, issued a preliminary injunction to prohibit Samsung from selling related products in Germany. Immediately thereafter, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet was banned in Germany for the same reason, and Samsung appealed. In Australia in September, Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, involving multiple patents. In October, Samsung’s related products were banned in Australia. In November, Apple sued Samsung in Germany for its upgraded Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet. On November 30, Samsung appealed to Apple in Australia and banned Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is roughly the passage of the patent war between Samsung's Android tablet and Apple's iPad. It can be seen from this that Android is losing more and more.

In addition, Apple also sued the HTC for infringing patents to the US International Trade Commission. The court ruled that HTC lost the case and prohibited HTC phones from entering the US market starting April 19, 2012.

In addition to Apple, Microsoft also wants a share. Microsoft, which missed outbursts of smartphones and tablets, is not obsessed with this. It sued HTC and Motorola for infringement of patents. After that, Microsoft and HTC reached an agreement to collect HTC licensing fees in exchange for the right to use, hoping to eliminate the free advantages of the Android system. In March, Microsoft sued Barnes & Noble again, claiming that its Nook tablet infringes on patents.

There are relatively few counterattacks in the Android camp. Google’s acquisition of Motorola has recently acquired about 1,000 patents from IBM. It has acquired a lot of capital in the patent war for the Android system, but the industry’s view is that Android is still very fragile. Recently, Motorola sued Apple in Germany for success. Some Apple products were banned in Germany. Then they sued Apple in the United States for the latest iCloud and iPhone 4S. Interestingly, Apple’s reaction to this incident was to accuse Motorola of hindering innovation; Samsung is also in Germany. Apple filed a patent lawsuit and the result is currently unknown.

Due to limited space, the rest of the battles will not be listed one by one. However, we can see from it that the Android camp is not as strong as its rivals in the face of lawsuits, but as time goes by, Google will fill more patented “ammunitions” for Android in the future, and public companies will also make possible lawsuits. Well prepared, it is difficult to say the outcome of the future.