“Apple won big with Friday’s $1 billion U.S. patent judgment against Samsung. In a sense that seems fair, as Apple revolutionized the cell phone and rival products from the Korean manufacturer and other competitors mostly look like copycats,” Richard Beales opines for Reuters Breakingviews. “But if the fear of future lawsuits forces Google, which makes the Android operating system used by Samsung, to push the technology and hardware makers forward, users could benefit, too.”

“The California jury took Apple’s side in almost all the company’s claims. These ran the gamut from the design of hardware to the appearance of icons and the gestures that users apply to a touchscreen to control it,” Beales writes. “[Samsung] seems to have miscalculated. Documents in the case showed that Apple had offered to let Samsung license certain patents for $24 per device. Based on the Korean firm’s smartphone and tablet sales, the Wall Street Journal calculates the cost would have been a bit over $500 million so far. Striking that deal with Apple could have turned out cheaper, especially since the judge can triple the awarded damages.”

Beales writes, “But the Apple-Samsung case doesn’t have to hold back progress. If the Android camp – which includes Google, Taiwan’s HTC and other handset makers – take the verdict as a challenge to out-innovate Apple, consumers could find themselves with exciting new options. And if rivals can steal Apple’s thunder rather than echoing it, they’d be able to note smugly that the Cupertino company’s seemingly comprehensive patent victory in 2012 was Pyrrhic.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We think competition is good. It makes us all better. And we are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off, and we’ll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal. I don’t know that I can be clearer than that. Apple’s then-COO, Tim Cook, January 21, 2009 – two years after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone and one year before he revealed iPad.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]