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Steve Jobs’ brainchild has been the center of lawsuits since its very conception. It makes sure to continue the tradition over time with lawsuits on apple ranging from major infringement accusations, to tussles with the FBI to meager customer complaints. Apple has had its hands full with loads of lawsuits most of which have been the result of its own notoriety. Read on to find out the top 15 such disputes.

Class action lawsuit against Apple iPhone 6 and 6 plus

A class action lawsuit was filed by three residents of California, USA against hardware issues with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus series phones. Coined as ‘Touch disease’ by repair guide website iFixit, it refers to when the display becomes unresponsive and displays a thin gray flickering line along the top rendering the phone unusable.

The plaintiffs complained that despite being long aware of the issue, Apple turned a blind eye and refused to pay damages for the same. They demanded the corporate giant to address the issue and fix their phones free of charge.

For further information about the entire dispute, you can read -
Apple touch disease lawsuit.

Apple-Nokia Lawsuit

A battle of legal quid-pro-quo ensued between Nokia and Apple since 2009, where both companies slammed lawsuits against each other regarding trade rights.

First, Nokia alleged that Apple failed to pay for the right to use its various technologies. Apple retaliated by claiming that the former infringed numerous of its patents.

After Nokia filed a complaint in the U.S. International Trade Commission, the tussle ended when Apple agreed to pay Nokia some licensing fee.

Apple-Samsung Lawsuit

The two have been at each other’s throats, regarding patent infringements for about six years now. It started with Apple suing Samsung for infringement regarding smartphone and tablet designs in 2011. Soon the conflict became global, known as ‘smartphone patent wars’, with the two contesting cases in nine countries.

Over time both sides have had victories and defeats to their names with Apple being the ultimate winner. The conflict till date has been speculated to have cost around a billion dollars.

The conflict is speculated to finally come to a close in the year 2017. You can read all about the conflict between the tech giants here.

Discriminating Apple

Apple has also been repeatedly caught up in discrimination disputes over the years.

Among the many, one such case was of Shaune Patterson, a former employee, who claimed that she was fired after complaining of lesser wages on gender lines, in 2005. She also claimed that this discrimination was complimented by racial discrimination too.

This was preceded by a dispute of similar nature back in 2001 when a former employee complained of racial discrimination against him. He claimed that he was wrongfully terminated after being paid lesser than his white colleagues.

Apple v/s Chinese companies

China based company, Proview Electronics sued Apple for over a billion alleging that it infringed their trademark for the word ‘iPad’. Apple bought the trademark from the company and ultimately made a settlement for $60 million.

This was followed by lawsuits with two other Chinese companies. Zhi Zhen Internet Technology claimed Apple infringed its voice assistant service patents. Whereas, Jiangsu Xeubao alleged that Apple operating system ‘Snow Leopard’ infringed its trademark.

iPad and iPhone privacy trouble

Apple was again sued in 2010 by users over the allegation that certain software applications were passing their personal information to third-party advertisers without their consent. In April 2011, Apple agreed to make amends, but no such steps were actually taken.

The case lasted till July 2012 when California court ruled in favor of Apple because there was no actual harm or loss, as according to law, it is only when a data breach results in actual loss as defined by applicable law that compensable damages arise.

iTunes price-switch allegation

Two suits were filed against Apple in 2009 by individuals who claimed that they were unable to use iTunes gift cards due to price hike after the sale of such cards.

Apple put up a vigorous defense but lost eventually. The settlement provided for compensation in the form of iTunes Store credit on submission of any such claims on or before September 24, 2012.

Apple v/s The Beatles

The Beatles-founded record label and holding company, Apple Corps and Apple Inc., (then Apple Computer) have been in disputes over the trademark ‘Apple’ and its association with music for nearly 30 years. It started in 1978 when the former claimed trademark infringement against the latter. The case was settled but was repeatedly breached by Apple Inc., with the bringing in of new apps and features, and new settlements had to be agreed upon.

Finally, the case was brought to a close in 2007 with the agreement that Apple Inc. would own all trademarks related to ‘Apple’ with re-allocation of few licenses to the use of Apple Corps.

Valencell infringement suit over Apple and Fitbit

Apple and Fitbit were slammed by infringement suits by wearable biometric data sensor technology developer, Valencell over the technology used in their wearable fitness devices.

Fitbit filed the suit in a North Carolina court claiming that the products infringed its intellectual property relating to physiological monitoring. Fitbit claims that it tried to sell the same technology to the two but was turned down only to find out later that they were using it in their products without paying.

The Apple Watch is the product that uses the above stolen technology, according to Valencell.

Some important infringement suits against Apple

Apple has a plethora of infringement disputes to boast of. Some such substantial disputes are given below.

Apple lost an infringement suit against VirnetX Holding Corps. Over two patents in connection with technology used in its Virtual Private Network on Demand, mostly including FaceTime.

The court ruled Apple to pay $302.4 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. for the infringement of its patents.

Later, a Taiwan-based university filed suit regarding infringement of two speech-recognition patents used in Siri app.

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) demanded a permanent ban on Apple against any such infringements as well as damages and other costs.

Further, Apple was again ordered to pay a sum of $532.9 million when it was found that its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by patent licensing firm, Smartflash LLC.

Smartflash’s 2013 suit claimed that iTunes infringed its patents related to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games. Despite many efforts, when the court also found it in breach, a reluctant Apple was eventually forced to pay.

Apple sued over storage-devouring iOS 8

A class action law suit was filed against the company alleging that it failed to disclose that iOS 8 would be consuming as much as 23.1 percent of the storage space on 8 GB and 16 GB devices.

Further, it was claimed that there was a discrepancy between the advertised space and the actual space available for use. Apple was also accused of pushing users to buy more space on iCloud instead of providing the promised space.

Apple is accused of doing this deliberately by making people upgrade to newer, space consuming softwares that don’t work well on older products, all in an effort to make people buy newer products.

Apple v/s The FBI

Following a terror attack, the FBI requested Apple to write new software to defeat password protection on its phones. This was in violation to the company’s free speech and due process rights.

FBI’s stand was backed by the Magistrate Judge, Sheri Pym and the ‘All Writs Act’. It allows courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law."

The All Writs Act gives judges wide latitude to compel parties to cooperate in cases before them, but there are limits. The judge must have no other legal options available, the target of the writ (Apple) must be closely connected to the case, and the court order cannot impose an undue burden.

Whereas, Apple argued that the magistrate’s order ignores several limits on the act. Moreover, it claims to be far removed from the case and that “The All Writs Act does not allow the government to compel a manufacturer’s assistance merely because it has placed a good into the stream of commerce.”

The case is still ongoing, with possibility of it being contested in the U.S. Supreme Court. You can read further about all these conflicts on Huffingtonpost.

While these might make for interesting reads, there is a lesson to be learnt from Apple’s repeated runs to the court.

The above conflicts have cost Apple a hefty sum over time. Budding startups can’t afford such potentially fatal lawsuits. Be sure to take all measures to protect your startup from any such possibility by having foolproof policies designed with the help of able lawyers. Moreover, it is also imperative to keep a lawyer on call to nip any possible conflict in the bud.