Wondering what's at the root of the latest mobile patent lawsuit.
It's raining patent lawsuits right now in the mobile industry. Nokia's suing Apple. Apple's countersuing Nokia. Kodak's suing Apple and Research In Motion. And now Apple is suing HTC.
At issue in the latest suit are 20 patents relating to iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. But why HTC and not, say, LG. Or Samsung. Or Motorola, Sony Ericsson... Well, you get the picture.
And then I thought: HTC makes the Nexus One. It's probably the most significant Android handset maker in the world, given its plans for a series of high-profile phones this year.
In other words, is this lawsuit all about suing Google by proxy? Part of the Cold War between Apple and Google which, to stretch the metaphor, would make HTC the equivalent of Cuba?
Yeah, that's probably stretching the metaphor too far. But other people much smarter than me when it comes to patent law see it the same way - as a new front in Apple's battle with Google.
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Check Engadget's excellent breakdown of the patents in the new lawsuit. As they put it:
"Apple's going after Android as much as it's going after HTC. Some of these patents are from 15 years ago and cover OS-level behavior - it's hard to see how they can relate only to HTC's implementation of Android and not Google's OS as a whole."
Is it enough to make other handset makers and operators dump Android like a hot, potentially ruinously-expensive potato? Surely not. But it may give them pause for thought.
In the last two years, the smartphone market has become one of the key drivers for mobile industry growth - not to mention popularising the idea of apps and mobile entertainment.
It's perhaps inevitable that it would end up in a flurry of lawsuits and legal posturing. Developers, brands, media owners and entertainment firms can only hope that the progress of the last two years isn't derailed by the patent battles.
Meanwhile, we can only speculate about who Apple will point its legal warheads at next...
