December 2012 was an interesting month for Apple lawsuits. We saw the return of our favorite troll, the patent troll, as patents were bought and sold and new victims brought to court. The Samsung vs. Apple lawsuit heated up again, not only in America, but in Europe as well with both companies wanting to ban the other’s products. All of this and more in this edition of Apple lawsuit wrap-up.

Find out more about Apple lawsuits in November 2012 from patent lawsuits to trademark lawsuits and more. It’s iFone vs. iPhone, VirnetX is double dipping, Amazon’s still upset that Apple stole it’s baby name, a New Zealand fellow wants $1,600 of Apple products for $35, and names such as Samsung, Seagate, HTC, and Motorola linger.

“No company would have done what we did this year. Think about it. We changed the vast majority of our iPhone in a day… The most successful product in consumer electronics history, and we change it all in a day… Eighty percent of our revenues are from products that didn’t exist 60 days ago. Is there any other company that would do that?” – Apple CEO Tim Cook

T-Mobile has announced they’ve agreed to a deal with Apple that will allow them to support Apple products on their network. The company is currently one of the few remaining major cellphone carriers in the U.S that doesn’t carry the iPhone, and with their new deal with Apple it appears this may come to an end…although their press statement doesn’t mention any specific Apple product.

It begs the question of whether Eddy Cue’s Ferrari board appointment could lead to Ferrari-themed Apple hardware products, such as Ferrari/Apple MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones, or at least more integration of Apple device connectivity in Ferrari automobiles.

Read about who’s suing Apple and why in this wrap-up of lawsuits for October 2012. Samsung is still around, but Motorola has pulled out. Apple technology in the spotlight this month includes Passbook, the iPad Clock app, Siri, the Quick Look feature, Messages, FaceTime, and plenty more.

Apple has released their sales numbers for the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad, revealing that they sold around a 3 million units over this weekend. Apple combined sales of the two devices into one press release without discussing individual model details. But between the two, Apple doubled the sales for the 3rd gen iPad, which sold around 1.5 million units upon its launch in March of this year.

Apple has announced that Bob Mansfield will be returning to Apple after retiring in June of this year from his position as Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. He will be heading a new technology division set up by CEO Tim Cook. According to the reports, the new group will combine all of Apple’s teams into one simple organization.

We reported yesterday on the major shake-up that happened with Apple’s management team, including the departure of executives John Browett (head of retail) and Scott Forstall (senior vice president of iOS software). More news has now leaked that sheds some light on what may have happened inside Apple headquarters.

Big changes were announced in Apple’s corporate structure: Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS Software, is leaving the company next year and “will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.” Jony Ive, senior vice president of industrial design, will take over the Human Interface design of iOS.