Big win for Apple yesterday as a jury group ruled that Samsung has infringed on Apple’s patents and should pay Apple over a billion dollars for copying the technologies in iPads and iPhones. For consumers this probably doesn’t change anything in the immediate future. Samsung said they will try to appeal, so this case is just beginning and can last for years before we see a final outcome. Lawyers from both sides will have their works cut out for them.
Apple and Samsung have been fighting legal battles not just in the US, but all over the world where smart phones and tablets are sold. It raises an interesting question about how far you can patent something. For example Apple has a utility patent ‘163 which lets users zooms in on an item of interest by tapping on the screen. At what point should a function be standardized? I’ve heard that in the past Apple has been sued for violating a double click patent. Maybe some things are better left open source, so others can improve upon it to foster innovation. But on the other hand, if you have a great idea and get it to market, shouldn’t you be entitled to a period of time to profit from it before everyone else can use it? What’s the point of spending time and money on research and development if you can’t protect it?
Thanks for the mention! Really interesting story from Apple/Samsung.
Anytime. Samsung’s shares lost $12 billion in value after the patent loss. Ouch.
Thanks for including my post in this roundup. The issue of technology copyrights is pretty interesting. I do think there should be limits on what can be copyrighted. Some functionality should definitely be open source, but where do you draw the line? The more open source things are the quicker technology can evolve, but there does need to be some incentive to creating new features first.
Sometimes even if a company does have a patent on something, someone else could still steal their intellectual property because of different rules in different countries. All too complicated for me to understand.
Thanks for the mention! Since i now have more time i think i will move my site to a official dividend investing blog and write content way more often !
Go for it. I like some of the other topics you’ve covered in the past too like Diablo 3 income, silver investing, and poker. They’re unique ideas you don’t see often in the personal finance space.