In Pictures: Top 25 network and IT industry stories of 2012

Judging wireless patents

The court battles between mobile technology players continued to rival their fights in the market, as phone and tablet makers squabbled over patents involving UIs, Siri, headsets and everything in between. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt pondered during a Wall Street Journal interview in December why Apple hadn’t gotten around to suing Google yet: After all, it has taken so many Google partners, from HTC to Samsung to Motorola Mobility, to court. Apple actually did settle a suit with HTC, though Apple and Samsung heated up their relationship with suits and countersuits around the world, from the U.S. to the U.K. to South Korea.