“Whether the home field advantage was a factor or not [in the Apple vs. Samsung patent fight], the result was startling and unequivocal: a near-total victory for Apple. Almost all of Apple’s patents were upheld (the exception being their purported ownership of the basic concept of devices with rounded corners), and the jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion of the $2.5 billion they demanded from Samsung,” Andy Ihnatko writes for The Chicago Sun-Times.
“…If the decision stands, it’ll make it far, far more difficult, expensive, and risky to be a company that designs phones and tablets,” Ihnatko writes. “Samsung will be fine. The biggest losers here are consumers. If the verdict stands, then the costs of the judgment will be reflected in the cost of mobile devices. Furthermore, other manufacturers will feel the need to buy Apple’s official permission to build useful phones, passing down the possible $20-per-handset fee. And it’s possible that the next great phone, the one that shames the iPhone the same way that the iPhone buried the Blackberry, will never make it to market. Designing and selling an advanced smartphone just became a dangerous business.”
Ihnatko writes, “Friday’s verdict doesn’t feel like justice. It feels like the day when Apple lost a hunk of its public persona as sweet hippies motivated by excellence and freedom, who win by making the best products.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You see, because the “sweet hippies” at Apple are supposed provide free multi-billion-dollar R&D for the rest of the world or something.
If Apple really thought the way Andy imagines they do, why did Steve Jobs patent Apple’s iPhone innovations?
Andy’s treacle makes no sense.
Three decades of being ripped off with impunity are more than enough.
Today [August 25, 2012] was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.
Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It’s about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than we knew.
The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.
I am very proud of the work that each of you do.
Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens. – Apple CEO Tim Cook, August 25, 2012
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tom R.” for the heads up.]
