Meet The Patent Thicket: Who's Suing Who For Smartphone Patents

from the now,-with-more-troll dept

Fri, Oct 8th 2010 9:34am — Mike Masnick

A few folks this week sent over a story in the Guardian by Josh Halliday and Charles Arthur with a graphic purporting to show who was suing who in the smartphone space, following the news that Microsoft had sued Motorola. You can see that graphic here:

Meanwhile, someone in our comments had pointed to a very similar graphic.

The problem is that both of these graphics are wrong. The Guardian one admits that it was built off of the NY Times post from back in March that that showed a similar graphic, which we wrote about at the time. Here's that graphic:

However, Joe Mullin quickly pointed out that the graphic was wrong and included a bunch of lawsuits that never happened. NY Times blogger Nick Bilton posted a correction to his story way back in March... so I'm unclear on why the two Guardian reporters were still using that as the basis of their own drawing.

Either way, with Motorola suing Apple for patent infringement, the already wrong graphic was now also out of date. So, I figured why not create my own, correcting the original errors and adding in the new information.

I ended up spending many hours on it, because once I started, I realized that to really show the state of the patent thicket, I couldn't just include the big name companies that were suing each other, because that's only a part of the story. What about all of the non-practicing entities (so-called "patent trolls"), who were suing lots of these companies for infringement as well? Doesn't that matter in understanding the thicket? Of course, there are lots of them, so I focused on the higher profile NPE lawsuits -- the ones involving multiple defendants -- and added them to the chart too (in green). And then, I added in a few other companies who actually make stuff but have been suing as well. Once you start, it's difficult to know where to stop. There are so many companies involved in so many lawsuits, some you just have to leave out. However, I believe the image below gives you at least some sort of picture of the lawsuit situation concerning smartphones. Some of these lawsuits have settled, but many are still ongoing.

Now, here's the crazy part: this is just lawsuits. I thought about showing licensing deals in this chart as well, but that would have killed my whole weekend (in fact, just as I was finishing up this post, I saw that Microsoft has just licensed 74 smartphone patents from Acacia). And then I thought about including companies like Intellectual Ventures which apparently are sitting on a bunch of other smartphone patents but haven't yet sued over them. However, I'd already wasted hours that could have been spent doing other, less brain-damaging work, and decided to leave it like this and move on.

Anyway, I'd say this does a damn good job demonstrating the concept of a patent thicket. It also explains how such thickets are hindering innovation. Anyone who wants to get into the smartphone business knows that they're facing lawsuits from a large number of the companies listed on the graphic.

Update: Someone just pointed out that Ars Technica apparently made their own graphic, which is really pretty.... but also relies on the same bad data that the NY Times used and corrected months ago.

Update 2: Apparently everyone had the same idea. The folks at Information is Beautiful made another version of the same chart... again including the incorrect information from the NY Times (though, at least they admit those lawsuits are about LCD price fixing, not patents).

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Filed Under: patent thicket, patents, smartphones
Companies: htc, kodak, microsoft, motorola, nokia, ntp, rim

37 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 9:39am

the lawyers
the lawyers are very innovative at finding new job opportunities at the expense of progress.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 9:39am

Why do you doubt the patent office's ability to grant a good patent. Never underestimate them, they might just do it one day and then you'll be sorry that you ever doubted them.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 9:40am

Re: the lawyers
It's judicial innovation at work.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 9:45am

Perhaps tangentially related:

"If after ten years we find it's really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us."

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/10/08/1536242/Why-Geim-Never-Patented-Graphene
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 9:55am

I may have found a more accurate graphic:

http://www.clipartguide.com/_pages/0808-0711-0812-3651.html

It's all just money passing around in a big circle getting no one anywhere faster.

I was at first convinced that abuse and perversion of IP law would be a dominant reason that the US would steadily fall in terms of progress and even basic civil rights, but seems IP law and procedure will be the real culprits.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:01am

This is a clear case when a law is broken. If the law wasn't broken, we would see just one or two sporadic lawsuits. What we see here is a tangled up web of lawsuits that benefit no one (other than the lawyers probably) and promote no progress. How can anyone defend a system that allows this? What is the advantage?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:18am

Re:
(more importantly, the real question is, is there such thing as a good patent).
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John Doe, 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:24am

This is why patents need to go...
Your diagram perfectly illustrates why patents hold back innovation rather than encouraging it. Every little piece of a device is patented by different companies so nobody can build the whole thing without violating lots of patents. This ends up in big lawsuit settlements or licensing fees which ultimately comes out of the consumers pockets.
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Hephaestus (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:26am

Suggestion ... next time do the graphic with all the companies in a circle. Its neater and easier to read.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:36am

Re:
I think he did it that way on purpose...
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R. Miles (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:36am

Suckers.
Those people paying a monthly fee for "services" when they're really paying for patent payouts.

Of course, AT&T must be hurting given their recent unlimited plan drop.

No wonder these companies want to charge by the byte.

Cellphone-free and have been very happy because of it.
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slacker525600 (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:39am

Re:
I agree, but dont think a circle is always the best.
I would like to see a little spreadsheet of data instead of this mess.
Id also like to know if the chart was done freehand or with a program designed to draw graphs. because there is free software out there for this sort of thing... my first thought is http://www.graphviz.org/
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Designerfx (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:46am

Re:
when you have this many interconnecting lines, a circle isn't going to make it easier
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 10:54am

Re: Re:
I stumbled upon one called yEd when researching about graph drawing applications. It looked nice and easy to use, and had automatic layout. It was freeware too (not open-source though, I think).

Graphviz works tough. Once you get the option down right that is.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 11:00am

I think one can use Blender to create a interactive model of that to show not only the actual lawsuits but the ones in the past showing the growing litigious nature of that scheme and the consequences.
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Comboman (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 11:14am

Re: Re:
Based on the look of the spline-curve arrows, I'd bet good money it was created in Visio.
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fogbugzd (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 11:50am

Firms with only incoming arrows
I have to have respect for companies with only incoming arrows. Of course, my respect isn't worth much.
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Jay (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 12:39pm

I'm surprised to see AT&T hasn't sued much on patent issues...
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Mike Masnick (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 1:41pm

Re: Re:
Id also like to know if the chart was done freehand or with a program designed to draw graphs. because there is free software out there for this sort of thing... my first thought is http://www.graphviz.org/

I used Gliffy, which is an online web-based chart making thing.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 1:42pm

Re: Re: Re:
Based on the look of the spline-curve arrows, I'd bet good money it was created in Visio.

How much are you willing to bet? :)
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Andreas, 8 Oct 2010 @ 1:43pm

you can see in ten seconds that all three infographics actually try to make it look more confusing than it is. So it's not really infographics, but more making fun of what's happening. What's the point of having the arrow between google and oracle cross other arrows, when they're not involved with the other companies at all? That's how populism works.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 8 Oct 2010 @ 1:55pm

Re:
So it's not really infographics

Is there anything wrong in the graphic?

making fun of what's happening

It doesn't need me to make fun of it to be ridiculous. That's kind of the point.

What's the point of having the arrow between google and oracle cross other arrows, when they're not involved with the other companies at all?

You try fitting all this info on a graph. I spent hours on this damn thing trying to make it as clear as possible. I was literally moving around all the boxes to try to limit the cross overs and stuff, and at some point I just realized it was impossible.

That's how populism works.

Uh no.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 4:42pm

Wonder how long before the Times tries to sue someone for redrawing their chart?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2010 @ 5:26pm

Re:
Read some books on graph drawing and then you'll see how much of a pain it is to draw these thing "right". But if you think you can do better, by all means, provide a better picture.

The fact that the diagram is a mess only accentuates the fact that this patent warfare is a also a huge mess and that the patent system is definitely broken.
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freak, 8 Oct 2010 @ 8:41pm

Rock, paper, Scissors?
I think you could totally make a rock-paper-scissors variant from these graphs . . .

"3-2-1 . . . Google!"
"Oracle! Oracle sues Google, I win!"
"Best 2 of 3? 3-2-1 . . . Qualcomm!"
"Nokia! Shoot, we both lose . . ."
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Vincent Clement, 9 Oct 2010 @ 4:17pm

Perhaps RJR can tell us how this patent thicket is promoting the progress of science and useful arts? It seems the only people making money from this are the lawyers.
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staff, 9 Oct 2010 @ 4:53pm

modern patents
"thickets are hindering innovation"

Not so. Without patents there would be no small companies developing technologies pushing large entrenched firms. Wonder why science has progressed so much more in the last 200 years than in the previous 5000? Patents. It wasn't until the introduction of modern patents that science really found its stride.
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staff-infection, 9 Oct 2010 @ 11:09pm

Re: modern patents
"Wonder why science has progressed so much more in the last 200 years than in the previous 5000? Patents. "

First of all, you're either a shyster or an ignoramus. You make many erroneous statements staff and this is just the latest display of ignorance or flat out lies, about patents.

1. Patents have been around since (at least) 500BC. The formal 20+ year patents are 560+ years old (not 200) and idea patents (the culprit) didn't really get going until dot com insanity at the turn of the century. So, given over 360 years of the 20+ year patents, the only thing they did, was to give ownership of industry to those who had the means to pursue patents. The system became unbearable with entrenched patent hoarders dictating the pace of innovation (Which is where we find our selves yet again). You can see in this graph, that the system went off the rails in 1998, the year State Street opened the door for idea patents. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/US_patents_1790-2008.png . In short, patents were then and are now, a king's sport.

2. There are no honest economic historians who would back you up on the claim, BTW. If you had any knowledge of the historical roll that patents played in the development of the industrial backbone (which actually ushered in the tipping point for advancement), you would be ashamed of your comment. So I'm just going to presume ignorance on that one.

3. The roll of patents up to the 1970's was somewhat justified, though at that time, they're stated requirements were vastly harder to satisfy than they are today. Process patents essentially destroyed what value the patent system had. If you actually loved the patent system, you would support a ban on imagination monopolies. The presumed validity of patents is gone now and that makes more work and waste for everyone. Except you and others that exploit the broken system. It's managed to make many of you very wealthy.

4. You show me a list of patent wins for independent inventors, and I'll build you a 10 to 1 ratio of inventors that got smacked down by the hand of patents. You can't deny that the independent inventor gets hosed far more often than he gets paid, can you? because that's just not supported by the statistics, staff.

5. and, I didn't even want to respond to this one, because it's so ridiculous, but.. here it goes: "Without patents there would be no small companies developing technologies pushing large entrenched firms.".

So what would the small companies be doing? How would they compete? Are you suggesting that there would be no small companies if the USPTO were shuttered tomorrow? That's funny, because nearly all of the patents that drag the system into the state that it's in today, wouldn't have existed until the dot com bubble really started inflating, and the USPTO was suddenly granting patents for "a process where in a user ".

So, yeah...
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Jenrose, 11 Oct 2010 @ 1:26pm

This is why we can't have nice things.
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David, 11 Oct 2010 @ 2:13pm

Try your own
If someone else doesn't update it, just create your own - http://www.jgraph.com/demo/mxgraph/editors/suegraph.html.
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J, 11 Oct 2010 @ 11:47pm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/floorsixtyfour/5060806793/

If you upload someone else's work to Flickr, should you not make damn clear in the title or description who did it? You've even released it under an Attribution license with no clue who to attribute it to.
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Caroline, 30 Oct 2010 @ 6:52am

Patent lawyers
Give those patent lawyers and patent trolls a piece of wood and let them Play with it and leave the rest of the normal world alone.
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Jose_X, 17 Nov 2010 @ 9:41pm

Re: modern patents
Oh, please, just look at open source software to see how wrong you are about the small firms not inventing things without patents.

And it's the large firms that abuse the system. It should plainly be put into law without any changes to the market that patents can only be used against large firms if what you say is true.

Science is about information (not traditionally the subject of patents, I don't think) and that took off after the printing press and has hit a new stride with the Internet.

Want to know what else stands out in the last 200 years? A democracy was born with many freedoms and a bunch of land and raw materials to be conquered and exploited. It's also true that we copied many inventions that were patented elsewhere but not in the US. [and this is what other nations are doing to us now as we stagnate with monopolists calling the shots]
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sanjiv, 20 Dec 2010 @ 8:49pm

The article was very informative and well written. While searching for this kind of articles, I found another well written article titled"never ending mess of telecom patents". to read more please
check..http://www.sinapseblog.com/2010/12/never-ending-mess-of-telecom-patents.html

Thanks
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Gadget | Telephone Mobile, 18 Nov 2011 @ 7:01am

wow
that good info
Read some books on graph drawing and then you'll see how much of a pain it is to draw these thing "right". But if you think you can do better, by all means, provide a better picture.

The fact that the diagram is a mess only accentuates the fact that this patent warfare is a also a huge mess and that the patent system is definitely broken.
iPod | iPhone | iPad Gadget | Telephone Mobile
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akamonde (profile), 15 Jul 2013 @ 11:54am

products with patents
I am pulling together a website www.productswithpatents.com to show inventors what products are patented and a ran across this. It won't be easy but I am going to try and add cell phones to the websit.
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davidbarcomb, 1 Dec 2014 @ 4:45pm

Good stuff. Thanks for posting
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