I read
this article published on November 1st, 2013, titled "Patent Wars: Tech
giants sue Samsung and Google".
Rockstar Consortium is a group of tech giants (Apple, Microsoft,
Blackberry, Ericsson, and Sony). Rockstar recently spend 4.5 billion dollars
buying Nortel patents. Nortel was a telecommunications and data networking
equipment manufacturer. My first
reaction was "that is a LOT of money"-- we are talking billions (not
millions). It was also interesting to learn that, in the third quarter of 2013,
Android devices accounted for 81.3% of smartphone shipments, while Apple iOS
was 13.4% and the Windows phone was 4.1% (statistics from a research firm called
Strategy Analytics). I had thought that the Apple iOS would make up a greater
percentage, but I realized that these statistics are solely for shipment in a
span of four months.
I also
read about how Nokia (whose mobile devices division is now bought by Microsoft)
won a patent victory over HTC. The HTC One smartphone was banned from import
into the UK. (Interesting, because I own an HTC One!) Also, in October of 2013,
Samsung promised to cease taking rivals to court for alleged patent
infringements for a period of five years. There is a $18,3 billion dollar fine
if they breach European anti-trust laws. Again, the severity of the fine (the
huge sum of money!) amazes me. Samsung and Apple are in the courts of more than
ten countries across Europe.
The
articles I have been reading have made me more interested to look into whether
or not there are avenues for cross licensing, so that people can share the
technology and products turn out better overall.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering at what point you think companies should share advancements and when they should hold onto ideas?
Certain advances may be a universal advantage to all cell phone users, but others may be a stylistic choice. How do you know the difference and how does innovation interact with all of this?
Connor
Do you know if the Rockstar Consortium is a legally bound entity? Further, do you know how the cost of the purchase was split between the companies?
ReplyDeleteThis makes you appreciate that Apple's intentions are not always so innocent. Soon after they formed Rockstar Bidco and purchase Nortel's patents, they proceeded to begin suing Google and Andoid for infringements against Apple patents (which industry experts cite as one of the primary reasons why Google paid three-times as much for Motorola's patent portfolio). It would be understandable if Apple purchased these patents to help further their own innovation, but to the public eye, it seems like they purchased it only to get back at Google. While this makes sense (putting a hold on Android sales for even a month could have billions of dollars in ramifications for Google), it's unfortunate that our patent system allows, and even to a certain extent encourages, this behavior.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting consideration in this patent war is to look at how the customer is affected. You have an HTC One, but no single person in the UK can legally buy one from their electronics store down the street. It's a shame that our patent system allows the customer to be hurt like this. Broad, sweeping patents need to be controlled to allow smaller companies to enter the market without the fear of being slapped with a billion dollar lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteHi Manali: I believe that you can share a patent. Actually, in my blog post this week, I commented about how Google and Samsung are collaborating to share several patents. That should pretty much be evidence of sharing a patent, or as you put it "cross-licensing" of a patent. However, to what extent does this sharing of a patent go...that I am not sure is very clearly defined.
ReplyDeleteLooking at what you said about the shipment of Android devices, you are right that there is a significantly higher demand for them worldwide compared to iOS devices. That mainly stems from the issue of cost. Over Summer 2013, when I was in Singapore, most people had Android devices, and most of my colleagues in Singapore told me it was common throughout many parts of Asia. I think the reason we always feel that iOS devices dominate the market is mainly because of what we see here in the US market. But, we must remember that there is of course a global market.