One hundred and seventy-one—that is the number of patent lawsuits that have been filed against Apple since the beginning of 2009. While Apple was sued for patent infringement more than any other company over the last four years, others are not far behind. Since 2009, Hewlett-Packard has been sued for infringement 137 times, Samsung has been sued for infringement 133 times, and AT&T has been sued for infringement 127 times.
At the intellectual property bar conferences, and in the IP journals, frivolous patent lawsuits are attracting the lion’s share of the attention. Proposals abound as to how to solve the “crisis.” Yet, the problem is so complex, and the interests are so diverse, that finding a workable solution has proven to be difficult.
