Apple is still number one on the hit parade for patent trolls, as the company has been hit with 171 lawsuits from non-practicing intellectual property owners, (read that as “trolls”), in the last five years.
The latest data from the group PatentFreedom reveals that Apple faces another 24 patent suits that were filed through June 30 of this year. With more than 170 lawsuits filed since 2009, Apple is well ahead of second-place target Hewlett-Packard, which has seen 137 complaints.
Apple rival Samsung takes third on the hit list, with 133 suits in the past five years. AT&T grabbed fourth with 127 filings against it, 30 of those in 2013.
Filling out the rest of the unenviable top ten are: Dell (122 lawsuits), Sony (110), HTC (106), Verizon (105), LG (104), and Google (103).
While Apple and HP were neck and neck through 2011, Apple has since become the top target for the trolls.
