Apple may use 'nuclear arsenal' to delay Palm's iPhone rival
Apple Inc., usually on the defensive when it comes to intellectual-property lawsuits, is threatening to use its hoard of patents to quash iPhone competitors.
Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, pledged in January to go after companies that copy the iPhone's patented features. Apple won its latest patent Jan. 20 for so-called multitouch technology, which lets people work the iPhone by touching the screen with two fingers and making swiping motions.
Apple's stance is an effort to threaten the new touch-screen Pre phone, the linchpin to Palm Inc.'s comeback plan, said Morgan Chu, a patent lawyer at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles. While Cook's comments don't mean Apple will actually seek a court order to stop the Pre - which is due for release in the next few months - the company may try to intimidate Palm and other rivals into working around its patents, forcing them to cut features or delay production.
"The best deterrent of a nuclear arsenal is not to use it," Chu said. "If I believe there is a high probability of getting sued by going down a specific path, I may go down a different path."
Apple is turning the iPhone into its third main business, alongside the Macintosh computer and iPod. The company surpassed a goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008, and may sell 28 million this year, according to Piper Jaffray & Co.
"A lot of people are looking at that longingly, and not just Palm," said Robert Yoches, a patent lawyer at Finnegan Henderson in Washington, referring to the iPhone's sales. "Don't be surprised if 2009 has a lot of suits both by and against Apple."
Palm, a pioneer in the smart-phone market, is counting on the Pre to regain customers lost to Apple and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry. The company says multitouch technology dates back to the mid-1980s.
"If we are faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves," said Lynn Fox, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, California-based Palm.
"We'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal" to protect Apple's intellectual property, Cook said on a conference call with analysts on Jan. 21, the day after the multitouch patent was awarded. Cook, who is running Apple during Steve Jobs's medical leave, declined to name the companies that Apple might go after.
Eschewing the styluses used with other touch screens, Jobs sought a pointing device for the iPhone that was familiar, easy to use and not easily lost: fingers.
"We have invented a new technology called multitouch, which is phenomenal," Jobs said after unveiling the iPhone in 2007, describing the input system as "magic." "And boy, have we patented it."
Apple's competitors dispute that it invented the basics of multitouch screens, and other companies have their own patents related to the technology. Nokia Oyj, Samsung Electronics Co. and Research In Motion all sell phones with touch-screens.
Apple more often is on the receiving end of patent- infringement suits, typically by individuals or small companies that don't make competing products. Apple faced nine patent suits as of November, according to its annual report.