Apple Reportedly Spent $100 Million in First Patent Case With HTC, We Laugh a Little

Newsweek’s technology editor Dan Lyons took to his personal blog yesterday to report on a spicy rumor that had cruised into his inbox concerning Apple and their patent war with HTC. According to his source, Apple spent upwards of $100 million in their first patent suit with HTC, a case that provided them with what most would consider a minimal win. In fact, that $100 million (which is unconfirmed by the way) awarded them justice over a single feature (the original suit was 10 patents) that HTC already claims to have a work-around for. Yikes. No licensing deal was struck – HTC simply plans to manipulate their products to avoid any further issues.

I think we all know that Steve Jobs hated Android with a passion. He claimed that it was a “stolen” product and that he was willing to go “thermonuclear war” and spend every last billion that Apple had in the bank to try and right what he considered a wrong. At this point though, hasn’t this whole Apple vs. Android battle started to look like a company acting not as a business, but as someone with a personal vendetta? OK, that may be stating the obvious. That’s exactly what it appears like. I would just worry that they are basing major business decisions off of emotion, which can be one heck of a scary thing- and I don’t mean for their competitors.

Via:  Dan Lyons