Over the course of the past few years, several multinational corporations have sued each other for intellectual property violations, through the process of patent litigation. Naturally, these corporations were suing because they wanted a larger market share and were willing to employ legal techniques to get it. The bulk of the litigation was regarding phone design and OS specifications. Since both Android phones and iPhone tend to look quite similar and have pretty similar operating systems, the areas of overlap are huge.
It all started in 2009, when Apple and Nokia became embroiled in a fierce legal debate. They both sued each other for multiple IP violations, and the war had begun. Over the course of the next 4 years, many smartphone manufacturers, including Microsoft, Samsung, HTC, Apple, and Nokia, were involved in the litigation, with the two major players being Samsung and Apple. The Samsung Galaxy was achieving record success and starting to majorly cut into the iPhone's market share, so the tension culminated in several court cases around the world, including one here in the US, regarding intellectual property violation. Apple and Samsung each won a few key cases around the world, so the battle continues.
It all started in 2009, when Apple and Nokia became embroiled in a fierce legal debate. They both sued each other for multiple IP violations, and the war had begun. Over the course of the next 4 years, many smartphone manufacturers, including Microsoft, Samsung, HTC, Apple, and Nokia, were involved in the litigation, with the two major players being Samsung and Apple. The Samsung Galaxy was achieving record success and starting to majorly cut into the iPhone's market share, so the tension culminated in several court cases around the world, including one here in the US, regarding intellectual property violation. Apple and Samsung each won a few key cases around the world, so the battle continues.
Smartphones are tiny devices with tons of computing power, so naturally, companies would nit pick about every little bit of intellectual property. For example, the "rounded rectangle" design of smartphones is a valid patent. Going forward, we can probably expect to see more lawsuits based on seemingly trivial aspects of smartphone technology and design.
ReplyDeleteYes, the companies would love to ensure the highest gains possible by maintaining control over specific designs. However, it seems difficult to judge whether we should accept these business practices or do we need some regulatory body to step in. From a consumer standpoint, it is irrelevant that the companies are in a patent war as long as the product is good. As this goes on, it seems less and less that Apple and Samsung are doing this for the "good" of innovation.
ReplyDeleteActually Norman, I disagree. The consumers are the ones being impacted most. Corporations are using these patents to make the market less competitive. By trying to beat out the competition using litigation instead of building a better product, the consumer loses out on innovation and on price competition.
ReplyDeleteHi Akshay,
ReplyDeleteI also wrote about the evolution of the smartphone patent war in my blog post, and was surprised during my research that Nokia was the one to start the smartphone patent war with Apple.
I think that one of the key elements of the smartphone patent war that you neglected to talk about was Google's role in it. As one of the largest tech companies in the world, operating in all of the mobile and desktop hardware and software markets, Google has been playing defense throughout its lifetime. Do you think that they'll continue to do so going forward?
You've sparked excellent comments, Akshay.
ReplyDeletePlease remember to include your references.