Apple-Samsung Case Shows Smartphone as Legal Magnet
By STEVE LOHR
Published: August 25, 2012
NY Times
“http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/technology/apple-samsung-case-shows-smartphone-as-lawsuit-magnet.html”
Nearing the end of August, the
patent war between Apple and Samsung had come to a temporary close. Apple beat Samsung in a $1.05 billion dollar
lawsuit in San Jose, California for Samsung’s infringement on 6 of Apple’s patents. Three or four of the patent infringements
were design infringements; these dealt with the casing on the phones and tablet
PC’s. Evidently, many feel that the
patent system has become extremely distorted.
Josh Lerner a patent expert and economist at Harvard University said “It is hard not to see all the
patent-buying and patent lawsuits as a distortion of the role of patents, they
are supposed to be an incentive for innovation.” Samsung made a statement that they plan on
challenging the jury’s decision. James
Bessen from Boston University’s law school said “The smartphone patent battles
are enabled by lots of trivial patents that never should have been granted in
the first place, that’s where Judge Posner was coming from in his ruling.” The Apple-Samsung patent war was not the only
problem recently; Apple also had a problem with Motorola, but the case was
dismissed. Obviously with the large sum
of money at stake from this court case, it is going to send a message to all
cell phone-developing companies. Colleen
V. Chien at Santa Clara Law School said ”This ruling sends a message to all the
handset makers that you have to make truly differentiated products that look
different, and that’s the message Apple wanted to send with its litigation.” Unfortunately, it seems that there is not
going to be an end to this patent battle until the regulations for obtaining
patents becomes more strict.
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