Which is entirely appropriate as the various patent battles under way resemble nothing so much as preschooler sand-box tussles.
The latest iteration is that Motorola, now owned by Google, filed paperwork for a suit that, if successful, would ban the import of all Apple devices into the US. And the likelihood of that happening is: approximately nil. In all fairness, there are those who argue it is exactly nil.
It is nice to see patents and other forms of intellectual capital receiving their due. It has been a long time coming. But from a strategic standpoint, this all appears to be a sideshow. The way to dominate the competition and establish an unassailable business is by designing and building great products, surrounded by superior services. Who-thought-of-what first in the maelstrom of technological innovation is, in most of these cases,(ahem)patently absurd.
One of the great advantages of Silicon Valley, Route 128, Bangalore, Tribeca, the Haidian district of Beijing and a host of other regional innovation hotbeds is the torrid exchange of ideas and people. Once the idea has gelled, the ability to execute and get your product to market is the differentiator.
The concern these patent battles raises is that corporations are focused more on protecting their turf than on creativity and innovation. As US Judge Richard Posner signaled in his opinion earlier this summer, these suits are a waste of the court's time - and the economy's time. None of these companies is going to put each other out of business on the strength of a patent lawsuit. But they may well put themselves out of business by losing focus on what really matters. JL
Matt Marshall reports in Venture Beat:
Motorola, the phone company Google acquired this year, filed a patent infringement suit against Apple that effectively to ban the import of the iPhone, the iPad and the iPad Touch to the U.S.
The paperwork was filed by Motorola with the International Trade Commission on Friday, but won’t be available for public viewing online until tomorrow (Monday).
The suit cites infringement of seven patents, including location reminders, e-mail notification, phone/video players, and even Siri voice recognition, according to Motorola.
While Motorola has in the past sued Apple for patent infringement, this is the first one filed since Google officially took ownership of Motorola in May.
It’s just the latest in a widening war of patent suits, and signals that Google is ready to get tough with its new patent portfolio in Motorola. Google could be trying to change the momentum in a battle that until now made Google’s Android look more vulnerable than Apple’s iOS platform. That’s because Google’s Android system was so young, it had little patent defense against other players. Indeed, Motorola’s 17,000 patents was the big reason Google chose to buy Motorola in the first place. Foss Patents has a good overview of Google’s strategic reasons for this.
Notably, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that none of the patents asserted by Motorola in this newest claim is a “standards-essential” patent, which could help Motorola’s case for the ban, if the court finds that infringement did happen. Patents considered standards-essential are ones that courts consider so basically necessary for a given industry that patent-holding companies are required to license them at a fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory prices. However, if patents are not standards-essential, courts don’t require holding companies to license them.
“We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations,” Motorola Mobility said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg.
In a previous case with Motorola, Apple has argued that Motorola’s licensing fee demands are unreasonable. In that case, the ITC ruled that Apple had infringed on one of the four patents asserted by Motorola. In that case, the ITC will make a final decision next week.
0 comments:
Post a Comment