Ever since the dawn of technology, new ideas have spawned legal squabbles. The history of such battles is as long as the history of the law itself; no doubt there were arguments over who invented the wheel.

Back then such disputes were probably solved with fists, but things became more civilised a long time ago. Even Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of movable type, faced the wrath of the courts after being accused by his partner, Johann Fust, of embezzling funds. The case, heard in 1455, left Gutenberg massively in debt - but it didn't stop his ideas changing the world.

Since then, we have become used to a constant roundabout of hi-tech legal wrangling. Barely a month goes by without the threat of legal action against one tech giant or another. The gigantic – and often monopolistic - nature of the telecommunications, computing and internet industries has meant that there is always somebody ready to take a shot in the courts (and that there is often plenty of money to pay for an army of lawyers).

Of course, it's always easy to get sidetracked by the legal battle that's big news right now, despite the fact that few people will remember it in a year's time. The current case between the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the people behind the ConnectU website is one example: it's being hyped up because of a strange combination of the buzz around the social networking site and the appearance of the vaguely unsettling twin litigants Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss (a pair of chisel-jawed American brat packers and budding Olympic rowers).

There are plenty more cases that didn't make our list. Apple's recent attempts to unmask bloggers' sources; the imprisonment of any number of political dissidents for views expressed on the internet; the ongoing saga of the alleged Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon, who is fighting extradition to the US. All of these are important in their own way.

But although viewing the legal process through a long lens is difficult, it is hard to deny that the arrival of the PC and the internet has thrown up a series of new challenges to technology, software and media companies – and to society in general.

The net features heavily in our list of the most important cases in tech history, as it has brought a slew of system-changing decisions to the forefront and is likely to continue in such a vein. So our list is unashamedly weighted towards recent years, and as such is far from comprehensive – but it's a start.

Greatest legal battles in technology

The Statute of Anne

Bell v Western Union

Marconi and the invention of radio

Apple v Franklin

The Betamax case

The Godfrey libel

The US v Microsoft

Dmitry Skylarov

MGM v Grokster

Apple v Apple