“As you may well know, the tech industry is currently enthralled with the Apple v. Samsung patent and trade dress trial,” John Kirk writes for TechPinions.
“If Apple loses this case…life goes on. Apple will have lost virtually nothing. There will be a legal precedent making it even harder for Apple or anyone else to protect their patents and trade dress,” Kirk writes. “But Apple’s been living with the real or imagined consequences of that reality for years and years already. Losing the case will not change how the parties act, it will simply reinforce the status quo.”
Kirk writes, “If Apple wins the case…life goes on. Samsung pays the damages or appeals the case or whatever. Samsung is not a broken company – not nearly, not by a long shot. Samsung makes a few tweaks to their existing phones and tablets, makes them look a little different, act a little different, and their devices continue to sell… This is a warning shot fired across the bow of the entire computing industry. ‘Violate our patents,’ Apple is saying, ‘and there is no amount of time, effort and expense that we will not expend to take you to court in order to rectify the matter.’ …Apple’s purpose, in other words, is to put a stop to FUTURE infringements of their intellectual property.”
Much more in the full article here.
Nicely made case: Begin by saying that will change and life will go on no matter who wins and then argue that EVERYONE in the future should be afraid of the above happening to them. lol
Except that not EVERYONE who might copy Apple has the resources to take a hit like Samsung does. To them, a multi billion dollar penalty may be no big deal. To other companies……not so much.
edit: “Begin by saying that NOTHING will change”
Agree. Its about the future. Apple has new and improved products in the pipeline and it wants to know either that they are more protected or that they have to bury the thing that makes them great in software that cannot be copyied.
Best of luck Apple
If Apple loses… what will be the point of patents?
Drink coasters.
Agreed.
What would the point for keeping the word “steal or stolen” in the dictionary.
In the end of his article he states that Apple should just out innovate instead of take companies to court. Except I have a problem with this. Because Apple already does out innovate and why should Apple spend billions on R&D so other companies don’t have to and make products to sell from it. Isn’t that why companies apply for Patents to protect there innovations? His answer is flawed.
Exactly. I have found it disturbing that in a lot of articles relating to this case, with in the article itself or in the comments you have people stating that Apple should just innovate instead of sue. But that’s the issue! Apple is innovating and others are stealing it!!
So I say this, why doesn’t Samsung learn to innovate instead of steal?
Samsung innovates. Their phones have large screens.
Really? A bigger rectangle is ‘innovation’?
I believe that would be sarcasm on R2’s part…
To allow them to stuff in the enormous batteries necessary to run the horribly inefficient Android on top of terribly designed battery draining 4G chips.
The iHaters that are in force on the net are posting so many lies about Apple IP are all stolen. Or, already in existence from companies many years ago and that Apple is now claiming it theirs.
Oh I wonder what we would find if someone did a nice study on the referrer URL and IP addresses of those posts…
“Patents and trade dress don’t much matter. You may have a legal right to enforce your patents, but as a practical matter, they are virtually unenforceable.”
That’s not true. Apple has won injunctions against Samsung in Australia and the UK. They will likely get something out of the U.S. verdict, even if it falls short of injunction.
If you take the author’s sentiment to its logical conclusion, it’s pointless to patent anything. This brain-dead analysis of intellectual property using an “it doesn’t matter/why bother?” stance is the laziest indictment of IP I’ve ever wasted my time reading.
Exactly. If Patent’s don’t matter, you have China.
Except even there patents and ownership matter, but only for firms that reside in China and pay off officials properly.
wait a minute… if apple looses, then what’s the point of trademarking and getting patents.. it would then be just ANOTHER one of the useless government programs that we all waste our time on… but then again, our judicial system is pointless as well… just look around you at all the losers that are not in prison that should be… if apple looses this, it will be just another sign of how stupid our society has become…