特許訴訟に備えて着々と強化されるアップル法務

［Attorney Robert Krupka］

Apple Beefs Up Legal Team for Patent Showdowns With Nokia, Motorola, HTC | Bloomberg

Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, is firing back by recruiting lawyers who have fought for and against some of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp. Broadcom won a patent dispute with Qualcomm Inc. last year that ended with Qualcomm paying $891 million in cash over four years.

Apple has hired some of the nation’s top patent lawyers as outside counsel. They include Lee of WilmerHale in Boston, who successfully represented Broadcom in its fight against Qualcomm; Robert Krupka of Kirkland & Ellis, who negotiated a 2005 settlement in which Apple agreed to pay $100 million to Creative Technology Ltd., maker of the Zen music player; and Matt Powers of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, who successfully defended the patent on Merck & Co.’s biggest product, the $4.7 billion-a-year asthma drug Singulair.

This year, Apple added an in-house attorney, Noreen Krall, to focus on intellectual property litigation. Krall had been chief IP counsel for Sun Microsystems Inc. and a staff attorney at International Business Machines Corp., according to the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

Apple ‘Lawyering Up’ as Patent Suits Grow | MacRumors