Motorola was a bit player in the patent litigation that will shape the cell phone landscape in the next few years. And now it has exited the stage. Plus: The ITC votes to proceed with an investigation of HTC's allegations against Apple.

It's becoming clear that patent wars over smart phone technology are going to spread revenue to Am Law firms like manure over undernourished soil. Kirkland has filed the latest smart phone suit--Apple's infringement case against the phone-maker HTC--but it turns out that K&E has quietly been representing Apple in the Nokia case as well. Plus: a rundown of all the firms involved in the smart phone litigation to date.

The most celebrated battle in the multifront war between Qualcomm and Broadcom has been the Big Q's suit alleging that Broadcom infringed its patents on video compression technology--the case in which San Diego federal district court judge Rudi Brewster ruled that Qualcomm had deliberately failed to disclose patents to a standards-setting body. Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed Judge Brewster's finding that Qualcomm breached its duty to disclose its patents to the standards-setting body. It also upheld his award of attorneys' fees to Broadcom.