Apple's chief patent lawyer leaves Jobs in the lurch with exit

Apple's chief patent lawyer, Richard 'Chip' Lutton Jr, has decided to quit after 10 years with the firm.

Reports suggest that Lutton wants to try something new and that he could even make the jump to the Federal circuit to hear patent appeals.

However, the timing of his departure will raise eyebrows as Apple's litigation team is involved in numerous high-profile patent infringement disputes with firms such as HTC and Samsung, as well as a bitter trademark battle with Amazon for rights to the term 'app store'.

It's fair to say that Apple's disputes with Samsung and Amazon aren't going to plan, and its bid to get a preliminary injunction against the latter to stop using the term 'app store' was rejected.

Apple also lost a patent infringement case with Nokia, which is unlikely to have have gone down well and could be the reason that Lutton is leaving.

Losing the case means that Apple will have to pay out around €420m to Nokia, along with quarterly licensing payments of around €95m.

B J Watrous, formerly a deputy general counsel at HP, is the brave man who has taken over as Apple's chief intellectual property lawyer.

Apple is set to have showdowns with Samsung and Amazon in court later this year, and it's fair to say that Watrous is going to be one of the busiest men in tech. We doubt that Steve Jobs tolerates failure. A baptism of fire indeed.