Bangalore: The Smartphone market has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years and the trend is expected to continue with an expected growth rate of 38 percent in the second quarter of 2012. These figures show the growing popularity of these devices among masses. Eyeing this trend, Smartphone majors such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, HTC and others are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that they don’t lose their grip on the market. This has resulted into these giants getting into ugly patent wars that have lasted for years and have benefited none.

Here we bring you a list of some of the ugliest Patent conflicts fought (or, being fought) between majors in the Smartphone industry:

Nokia vs. Apple:
Year: 2009

The Finland-based mobile company Nokia sued the iPhone creator Apple over alleged breach of its wireless standards. Apple countersued Nokia and that kept them entangled in lawsuit for over a year and a half. However, in June 2011, Apple agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to Nokia in lieu of using parts of Nokia’s patents. Nevertheless, this did not aid Nokia’s fortunes as its stocks have tumbled to an all time low in 2012.