Apple\'s chief patent lawyer to quit

Apple Inc\'s chief patent counsel will soon leave the company, at a time when the iPhone maker is fighting numerous legal battles around the world, according to sources familiar with the situation. Richard \"Chip\" Lutton Jr who manages Apple\'s patent portfolio, recently hit his ten-year mark at the company and decided it was time to try something else, according to a source familiar with Lutton\'s thinking. An Apple representative declined to comment. Apple shares closed down 25 cents at $353.75 (Dh1,299) on Tuesday, paring losses after falling to a low of $348.62 earlier in the morning in a market that was broadly lower on Europe\'s fiscal woes. Apple is engaged in an expanding web of litigation concerning smartphone patents, mostly with phone-makers using Google Inc\'s rival Android software. Article continues below BJ Watrous, a former deputy general counsel with Hewlett Packard, is now listed as Apple\'s chief intellectual property counsel on Watrous\'s LinkedIn page. Common battles Legal battles have become common in the cellphone industry since Google brought out its free Android operating system, grabbing a big chunk of the lucrative and fast-growing smartphone market. Android has become the world\'s No 1 mobile software platform this year. Apple\'s intellectual property team has been on a hiring spree lately, snapping up litigation specialist Noreen Krall from Sun Microsystems. She leads Apple\'s litigation team, which regularly works with lawyers in the IP unit, a source familiar with the process said.