Is It Time for Apple's Patent War to End?
businessweek.com
Apple would be smarter, says Kevin Rivette of 3LP Advisors, to cut tech deals that give it inside looks at rivals' innovative directions
businessweek.com
Some arguments paint with too broad a brush. Where patents are concerned, especially software patents, the arguments are far too narrow. Of course Apple should end its patent war. Unlucky for Apple, if it ends its patent war while Microsoft continues to extract tribute, Apple loses. And Microsoft should end the war. Oops, it loses too.
In the end, everyone who unilaterally stops playing the game loses. So everyone should end the war. And I don’t mean, “Return to an uneasy oligopoly where new entrants are forced to pay tribute to the existing patent-hoarding overlords.” I mean, abolish the patents. beat the swords into ploughshares.
p.s. Exercise for the reader: If technology patents are eliminated and anyone can do anything, does that mean that everyone will instantly engage in a copycat race to the bottom, and the only winners will be companies that have a service that can’t be copied? if so, why aren’t Google and Facebook spending billions lobbying to end patents? It seems like they would be the big winners if the price of phones, tablets, and computers fell to nearly zero.
I think they point they are making is 'don't fight .. cash in'
Is it time for Apple's patent war to end?
Should we feed our children?
Is it time to stop murdering other people?
Baited questions are a lame rhetorical device.
> the manufacturers on the losing end need only modify their design to get around the imposed restrictions.
And that's precisely the point for Apple.
> The problem is that many of Apple’s patents focus on look, feel, and design, which means they can be worked around, as in the cases mentioned above. As a result, Apple could have a hard time securing lasting, sticky restrictions that would permanently prevent its competitors’ products from being sold in individual markets, let alone worldwide.
And Apple doesn't care because that's not the point.
Despite the Jobs quote saying he wanted to sue Android out of existence, Apple does not really want to drive Android (nor other competitors) itself into oblivion, Apple wants people to stop copying their design. They want to force the copycats to differentiate, if not innovate.
So Apple is suing everyone because they want their competition to differentiate, innovate, and, in general, become better?
No, Apple is suing them, with or without merit, in order to make it harder for competition to compete with them, to make their lives harder, and to ensure own leadership position as long as possible.
In addition, it's not fair to call someone copycat just because it has square screen on square phone. What they had to do, to put round screen on triangular device?
> What they had to do, to put round screen on triangular device?
We're not talking about the general shape, which is obviously constrained (and would be like saying a Ferrari 456 and a Lada Niva look the same because both have two doors and four wheels), we're talking about design (which does not restrict to looks). Still, Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 look nothing like an iPhone (neither hardware nor software), even with bad eyesight. Same for Palm/HP devices, or a Nexus One, or HTC Evo or Legend. Squint a little and you can't make the difference between an iPhone 4 and a Galaxy S2 laying on a table. I'm not even talking about the Tab 10.1.