Apple will use the same law firm that represented it in the second Samsung litigation to represent it in its legal battle against Epic Games. Apple will use the Gibson Dunn firm to fend off the antitrust lawsuit recently filed by the Fortnite developer.
Software patent and litigation expert Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents says two high-profile L.A.-based antitrust lawyers have electronically appeared before the United States District Court for the Northern District of California as counsel for Apple. Those lawyers include:
Apple last week removed Fortnite from the App Store, just hours after Epic Games debuted a new direct payment option to get around Apple’s in-app purchases rules that give the Cupertino firm a 30% cut of the action. Epic Games then immediately filed a lawsuit against Apple for pulling Fortnite from the App Store, accusing Apple of anti-competitive actions.
Gibson Dunn has previously represented Apple in high-profile litigation cases, including the second Apple v. Samsung case. The firm won $539 million in damages for Apple in that case.
Since business is business, the firm has also been on the other side of the courtroom from Apple, as it represented Qualcomm in the Apple v. Qualcomm antitrust and contract litigation in the Southern District of California.
“The court is almost certainly going to ask why Epic can’t just live and comply with the same app developer agreement it had been honoring for years, gladly making a billion-dollar amount, while this litigation is ongoing,” Mueller speculated.
The first Epic Games v. Apple encounter in court is scheduled to take place on Monday in the form of a Zoom videoconference.
Apple on Monday told Epic Games it will terminate the company’s complete access to its App Store and app development tools. Epic Games today said that Apple told it that on August 28, all access will be terminated.