Patent madness! A timeline of the Android patent wars

20.09.2011
History may look at as the tech industry's Helen of Troy: The OS that launched a thousand suits.

Every single week seems to bring new suits and countersuits revolving around software patents allegedly being infringed upon by Android-based and tablets. Because the history of the Android patent wars is so long and involved, we've created this handy timeline to give you a suit-by-suit chronicle of what companies have sued Android vendors and how Google has tried to counter such suits.

March 2010: gets the ball rolling by filing a for allegedly infringing on 20 Apple patents. At the time Apple says that the patents in dispute relate to the 's patented "user interface and the smartphone's underlying architecture and hardware."

April 2010: strikes its first major blow in the Android patent wars by announcing that it has reached a to pay royalties to Microsoft in exchange for the right to sell Android-based devices. By this time Microsoft has also started negotiations with Android vendors such as Sony Ericsson about potential licensing deals.

BACKGROUND:

August 2010: Oracle files a against Google over the use of its Java programming language in Android.