http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/technology/patent-wars-among-tech-giants-can-stifle-competition.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
This New York Times article "The Patent, Used as a Sword" touches on the headache that patent litigation and explains how large of a role it plays in the technology start up world. I was put back by the following quote from the article. "Last year, for the first time, spending by Apple and Google on patent lawsuits and unusually big-dollar patent purchases exceeded spending on research and development of new products, according to public filings." I just started to imagine how advanced our technology and society would be if Apple and Google used all of that money spent on patent lawsuits and purchases to fund research and development. Then I started to think if it would even have made a difference. If Apple and Google didnt take this course of action would they not be where they are today? Many people think the patent system is broken and that being able to hold a patent on a vaguely described concept is bogus. I have mixed feelings on this and cant choose a side, but will be able to experience this first hand in the coming months.
Indeed, perhaps if these large companies dropped their legal cases once and for all then innovation would increase.
ReplyDeleteBut at the same time, it could be argued that, although excessive, these companies are defending their own innovation and thus promoting it.
I think that Apple and Google are intimidated by the massive amounts of innovation and therefore do spend insane amounts on reducing this competition. If they were not at least slightly worried, I think they would put all of their funds into R&D and let other companies do the same. I can't even imagine what our smart phones could do if these companies stopped wasting their resources on law suits.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great read. I may think that they might want to file law suits to protect their names and trademark and look good to the public eye. I may be wrong but I think that if the public feels that Google copied another product or idea, their stock price might drop which could potentially cause them lost revenue. I do agree that it is ridiculous that companies like them spend more on law suits than R&D; there maybe need to be harsher rulings about patents in order to solve this problem.
ReplyDeleteI was just discussing this on a YouTube video I was commenting on. It seems as if companies are much more worried about what everyone else is doing instead of worrying about their own development. I feel this could end up hurting our economy in the long-run given the lack of innovation and the patents will limit the amount of companies in a given field and thus further drive down innovation.
ReplyDeletei can see where people's concern is coming from – potentially, we could gain so much more if companies spend their money doing research and creating new ideas instead of suing each other. However, at the same time, I also wonder if it is because the current penalty is not enough for people who "steal others' ideas". After all, if ideas are not protected, who would want to invest money to create new products for others to copy?
ReplyDeletePatents, particularly in software, requires extensive capital and time to recognize its intended legal purpose. In general, the aim is to settle, staying out of the court and to delay competitors. Google, Apple, and generally an software based company will need to capitalize on patent assets as a competitive advantage, regardless of its impact on innovation
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