Patent lawsuits are getting out of hand, and now Samsung is talking about getting the iPhone 5 banned in Korea. The U.S. patent system is broken, and if the government doesn’t fix it soon, we will head down a long, hard path of mucky litigation where nobody wins and customers are the ultimate losers. Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion just to beef up its patent arsenal for protection in court (Wall Street Journal). That money could have been used to innovate; instead it’s going down the drain. All the money spent on patents and litigation will eventually end up costing customers. Check out this graphic published by Newsweek last spring that gives us an idea of how bad it is. Each line represents a lawsuit:
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Phone Fight!, Newsweek |
I agree, patent litigation is the biggest problem stifling the development of the future of electronics. It's sad that the cost of these battles are handed down to the consumer.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's crazy! It's kind of like our economic system in that I'm not sure who even knows where to begin fixing it. I'd never thought about the customer being the loser in the end, but it's true. All damage done to companies by litigation is reflected in price of a company's products and, in worse cases, their existence as a whole.
ReplyDeleteStep up and sign a petition at whitehouse.gov that is a good step towards ending the madness! http://wh.gov/gEm
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