A Roadmap to the Smartphone Patent Wars and FRAND Licensing

The smartphone industry today is characterized by a thicket of patents and wars based on those patents. Every day brings a new lawsuit or development between Apple, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. The lawsuits span numerous courts and several continents. This 5-page article attempts to make sense of the chaos, with a particular emphasis on standards and reasonable licensing ("FRAND") terms. It summarizes court rulings on whether injunctions should be granted on "standard essential patents" and "non-standard essential patents." And it discusses the European Commission investigations of Motorola and Samsung, and the Department of Justice’s approval of the patent portfolio acquisitions of Novell, Nortel, and Motorola.