“Apple Inc. has spent at least $32 million in one patent-infringement dispute with Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility unit — one among many legal fights on four continents,” Susan Decker reports for Bloomberg.
“Add them up and it’s clear the Cupertino, California-based company is paying hundreds of millions of dollars in its quest to prove that Samsung Electronics Co., Motorola Mobility and HTC Corp. ripped off the iPhone,” Decker reports. “The lawsuits are a boon for patent lawyers, who bill companies as much as $1,200 an hour each for their ability to help jurors and judges understand technology and arcane rules of law. Apple has spent more than $2 million on expert witnesses alone for a trial in its case against Samsung in federal court in San Jose, California, based on a compilation of what witnesses said they were being paid. That case is in the hands of the jury.”
Decker reports, “Legal fees, like advertising, are investments in the companies’ efforts to seize and defend share in a global smartphone market that grew 62 percent to $219 billion last year. Suwon, Korea-based Samsung is the world’s biggest smartphone maker, while Apple dominates in the U.S. Apple’s $32 million expense in the one Motorola Mobility dispute equals less than six hours of iPhone sales.”
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