Wickersham's Conscience

The mobile telephone or “smart” phone industry is highly profitable and fast-growing. But the lawsuits, fighting over that profit, are getting completely out of hand. Here’s a handy chart, courtesy of the London Guardian’s Technology section, to help you keep track:

Mobile Phone Litigation Follies

Some of the litigants are easy to figure out. Kodak pretty much died with the film industry. Microsoft can’t figure out how to build a mobile phone anyone wants to buy. Almost all of Apple’s growth in the industry has come at the expense of Nokia.

Confused? Ars Technica has another version of the same chart that tries a different way to show you what’s going on.

IP Litigation as Mexican Stand-off

The biggest players in mobile phones these days are Nokia, Motorola and Apple. And you can see that the also-rans have adopted the Willie Sutton theory of litigation. Willie Sutton, one of America’s most famous bank robbers, is supposed to have been asked by reporter Mitch Ohnstad, why Sutton robbed banks. Sutton is supposed to have said, “Because that’s where the money is.” The story is probably apocryphal, but it’s still famous.

Why do the Kodaks and Microsofts of the world sue the Nokias and Apple? Because of Willie Sutton’s rule. Sinking the legal fees into innovation might be more profitable in the long run. But the suits in boardrooms don’t always think in the long term.

Sure, WC is a lawyer himself, and generally approves of attorneys’ fees. But sometimes even WC is embarrassed by his colleagues. Is American innovation reduced to a fog of IP litigation?

Those who can, do; those who can’t sue.