Bet you weren’t expecting this
It's tempting to refer to counter-suing as a knee-jerk reaction to being sued, but that would imply instantaneousness. What it does seem to be is inevitable in the high-stakes poker game of patent litigation.
Back in October Nokia, which had presumably been trying to get Apple to pay it for using some of its intellectual property in the iPhone for the past two years, decided it was time to call in the lawyers. "Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation," it said at the time.
Today, in a very short press release, Apple announced it was responding to that lawsuit by filing a countersuit claiming Nokia is infringing 13 Apple patents. The six weeks it took Apple to countersue imply it had to do a spot of digging around to get ammunition for the inevitable counter-attack.
"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours," pouted Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel and senior vice president.
Poor old Sewell, he has only just joined Apple from Intel, leaving a trail of of legal carnage in his wake. He's barely had time to redecorate his office before being thrown back in at the deep end.
