Cravath, Swaine & Moore partner Evan Chesler kicked off the first major courtroom clash between Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. with a simple yet urgent message: “The house is on fire, your honor.”

He described client Qualcomm, the San Diego telecom company, as under worldwide assault from Apple, which is suing in San Diego federal court for antitrust, breach of contract and a declaration of patent noninfringement. Apple has piled on with similar actions in the U.K., China, Japan and Taiwan.

“We believe we are standing in a boxing ring with our gloves up,” Chesler said, hands aside his head, “with the biggest boxer in the world punching away at us.”

If that's the case, Aug. 18's hearing was the first round in what could be a whale of a prize fight. Multiple in-house counsel from each firm ringed the audience along with heavyweight partners from Boies Schiller Flexner and Fish & Richardson for Apple; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for Apple's Qualcomm manufacturers; and Cravath and Jones Day for Qualcomm.