Samsung, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have filed a class-action lawsuit against a variety of companies that own patents that were granted to Samsung and other manufacturers before the start of the smartphone boom.
The suits are seeking damages for lost wages, intellectual property infringement, loss of goodwill and other damages.
The lawsuit is one of the most prominent against tech companies in recent years.
Apple and Samsung both declined to comment on the suits.
Apple has previously filed lawsuits in court in the United States against the major technology companies.
A federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed the cases earlier this year.
The case is separate from a lawsuit filed by Google, which has been seeking $1 billion in damages for intellectual property theft.
Apple is also pursuing a similar lawsuit in Europe against Samsung, but the case has not yet been filed.
The companies said in the lawsuits that they had been unable to negotiate an settlement on the matter.
The lawsuits have not been successful in getting other companies to pay damages for the lost wages.
Apple, Samsung and Microsoft declined to respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes at a time when companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are being sued by consumers who say they have lost valuable personal information when their phones have been stolen.
Last year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed an investigation into whether Apple’s iPhone infringed on patents held by a company called Motorola Mobility, which sells smartphones for Google, Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Motorola Mobility and others.
The company said it was unable to resolve the case, but that it had filed the lawsuit in hopes of protecting customers from a potential lawsuit from a rival.
