Legal Perspective:
Recently, there have been discussions of the patent war that demonstrates the strategic importance companies place on patents. Furthermore, there has been many legal battles to maintain control over patents.
Based on recent discussion, the tech giants such as Google or Apple can use these patents to ensure royalties and benefits. These litigation cases help provide a competitive edge for the company. The competitive edge comes from the fact that the other companies who do not have a patent are forced to work around it. Bottom-line, the companies need more time and funding to develop different products. This trend can be strongly seen in the recent case of Google recently being fined $125 million for push notification technology.
For smaller innovators, there is an interesting alternative to dealing with patents. The larger technology companies such as Apple have all the resources to pursue and successfully obtain patents. Smaller inventors and companies do not have the same resources and can look to these middle group organizations such as IV
(Intellectual Ventures). One way to look at these groups is to imagine "a Costco warehouse that provides patents for people to use" (NPR). This method can provide a possible solution to dealing with these larger companies and infringement issues without the need of the smaller guy going toe-to-toe with Google or Apple. Mind you, these groups were around three years ago but they are still operational today. In this manner, they may be able to foster innovation in a more positive manner rather than being legally driven to that point. Innovation can then occur by the pure desire of the company or individual without being so focused on beating the competition.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-patents-attack.
The article on NPR is definitely an interesting read. In addition to what you mentioned, the big companies like Google are buying a lot of patents from other companies, who are unable to maintain their balance sheet. However, they do not use most of the patents in their new products, but rather use them as a form of protection. This makes it harder for smaller companies to survive as they may unknowingly design a product which already infringes some patents. I fear the patent war might be getting out of hand. More than having organisations such as IV try protecting the small guys (as it claims, I am not to judge), it would be crucial for the government to step in at some point before it goes overboard and hinders innovation.
ReplyDeleteThe smartphone patent war is definitely not fair for smaller companies. To some extent though, I wonder, because they're so small and not exactly a threat, whether large corporations even bother going after them in these lawsuits? I mean, for a small company, the costs involved in litigation could actually destroy it so perhaps these companies prefer to settle or find another way to deal with their larger competitors. It might even explain why smaller companies get bought so much. It's probably easier to sell your product than to go head to head against these tech giants. It must be painful giving up something you worked so hard on, unless of course getting bought out was your goal to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the bottom line of this entire war is that the companies need more time and funding to improve their products. One way that the companies buy time is by hiring lawyers to sue other companies over anything and everything. This stalls the process and ensures that their competitors have a harder time moving ahead of them. Especially when the patents are so simple (such as the shape of the phone or the slide to unlock the phone), it makes it difficult for other companies go around that, and sometimes patent infringements are inevitable. I actually hadn't heard about the recent case of Google being fined $125 million for push notification technology. I'll definitely take a look into it! It sounds interesting. Also, the Costco warehouse analogy by NPR was a helpful way of understanding it. I really hope that innovation moves towards that of pure desire rather than merely a result of competition.
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