Analysis: Apple's big enemy in smartphone wars: delay

Apple Inc has spent nearly three years fighting its rivals in a global smartphone patent war. Now, setbacks in two key U.S. court cases are laying bare why a drawn-out battle could be bad news for the ...

I haven't reported much on the "Smartphone Patent Wars" over the last couple years, not because it isn't an important and newsworthy development in international trade but instead simply because patent/trade law is highly arcane (yes, even more arcane than trade remedies) and there are so many different disputes that it's really, really difficult to keep track of the issue.

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp and Google Inc have agreed to bury all patent infringement litigation against each other, the companies announced on Wednesday, settling 18 cases in the United States and Germany. In another sign of the winding down of the global smartphone wars, the companies said the deal puts an end to court fights involving a variety of technologies, including mobile phones, wifi, and patents used in Microsoft's Xbox game consoles and other Windows products.

A US court on Thursday rejected Apple's request to revive its bid for a sales ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dashing the iPhone maker's attempt to recover leverage in global patent wars.

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