Analyst: Apple warned handset makers before suing HTC

From CNET News.com: Apple's suit against HTC for patent violation didn't appear out of the blue, according to an analyst report Tuesday.

In January, Apple began approaching the executives of competing handset makers and warning them it planned to take legal action against those that infringed on technology related to the iPhone, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner wrote in a research note, first reported by Fortune. Reiner says he learned this by doing "checks" with his industry sources, and found out that Apple's warnings actually appear to have derailed the development plans of future iPhone competitors, though he doesn't specifically name which ones.

But it clearly didn't include HTC, the Taiwanese handset maker that Apple sued last week over 20 iPhone-related patents.

At the time Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement, "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it." But Apple had actually put its competitors on notice over a year earlier. That was when COO Tim Cook, filling in for Jobs on medical leave, bluntly said on an earnings call, "We will not stand for having our IP ripped off," and declared the company would use "every weapon at out disposal" to prevent it. At the time he declined to name a specific company, though it was widely interpreted to be directed at Palm's new Pre, which was designed by former Apple engineers hired by Palm.

Turns out, it was intended more broadly, according to Reiner's industry sources. Apple's warning reverberated through the executive suites at many competing smartphone manufacturers. "Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged," according to the analyst.

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