Sony Decides It Doesn’t Want to Be Left Out of Cellphone Patent Fight

Just making it in under the wire, Sony became the latest cellphone maker in 2010 to allege that a rival’s products infringe on some patented technology.

Sony on Wednesday filed a complaint in the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that Korean rival LG infringes on a number of Sony’s patents. The company is asking the ITC to bar importation of LG products that are found to violate its patents.

Among the phones that Sony alleges are infringing on its technology are the Accolate, Encore, enV Touch, Glance, Lotus Elite, Neon, Quantum and Rumor Touch.

The latest legal challenge adds to an already crowded docket of wireless competitors making patent-related claims. Just a partial list of the court battles has Nokia against Apple, Motorola against Microsoft, Apple against HTC and Oracle against Google.

Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith predicted last month that the various players will probably agree on some sort of appropriate royalty streams covering modern smartphones. in the meantime, it looks like the lawyers for all the cellphone makers will remain gainfully employed in 2011.