“Get ready for ‘rubber banding.’ That’s the way the screen on an iPad or iPhone seems to bounce when you scroll to the bottom of a file — and it’s among the terms jurors must understand as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. face off in a patent trial this week,” Peter Burrows reports for Bloomberg.
“Apple has become the most valuable company by creating products that stand out for design and ease of use, stemming from scores of smaller innovations, such as rubberbanding, rather than epic underlying technology breakthroughs,” Burrows reports. “In the trial in federal court in San Jose, California, Apple will try to prove to jurors that its brand of innovation is not only effective in the marketplace, but also defensible in a courtroom. ‘Everyone has a sense that Apple does something different,’ said Cheryl Milone, chief executive officer at Article One Partners, which makes software used to prove or disprove intellectual property claims. ‘Whether those differences can be protected in court is the question.'”
MacDailyNews Take: If it’s not, there is no impetus to innovate. And then, from whom will Google, Samsung, et al. copy? You either protect the innovator or consign the world to half-assed Microsoftian dreck.
Burrows reports, “As consumers move en masse from older, limited-feature handsets to computer-like smartphones, the trial could have a big impact on one of the largest, fastest-growing areas of technology, said Chris Jones, an analyst at Canalys. If Apple were to win, Samsung could be forced to scale back features in its handsets, making them less attractive to consumers. A victory could also help Apple hobble another important foe: Android, the operating system that Google Inc. gives away to manufacturers and Samsung uses on key products. Google’s approach threatens Apple’s pitch to consumers that its exclusive offerings are different and better.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s impossible to offer unique products that are different and better when derivative companies like Google, Samsung, and Microsoft before them to name just three, copy steal, and bastardize your intellectual property. EVen when it’s not the same, when the average schlub on the street can’t tell the difference, the cheating companies win and the innovator is harmed.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Inc. R&D for the world for over three decades and counting.