I have an I-Phone and I love it. I generally love Apple products, but I think it's a sad world where the richest company in the world can have a patent and rights over a shape???
Prior to smart phones almost every phone had a similar shape! I think it's ridiculous and Apple should be ashamed! Do they want Samsung to make a round phone?
I look at the whole patent issue differently.
Patents are supposedly there to protect innovations, but instead are used these days to stymie competitors. The patent system needs an overhaul, but not in the way that "rounded corners" becomes invalid as a patent, but that one company can’t stop another from having something that is seen as fundamental from the market.
Take all the patents on communication etc, they should be available to all at a reasonable price, not dependant on revenues, as without them you can’t connect your phone to the system.
However, if a new challenger emerges, and comes up with something radically different, that the market dictates is essential to the new wave of phones, that should then be made available to all at a reasonable price too. Unfortunately certain companies, not just Apple, are taking patents to block competitors.
Now, it’s fair that if you came into the market and developed something so radical that you should have some exclusivity on it, before everyone rips it off, surely? Perhaps that’s how the system needs to change, innovate = exclusivity for a while, but not forever.
Mind you, an article I read the other day suggested that because of this verdict, other manufacturers are more likely to give their designers a bit more space to innovate for themselves, which will bring ideas to the market that wouldn’t have been seen before this, as everyone was just copying the (supposed) leader. I’d agree with that and can’t wait to see how the market changes from this… and expect to see competitors come out with better ideas, Apple copy and get sued in much the same way, AND LOSE.
I think a jury and anyone else asked to render a verdict, would have to be blind to not see how similar Samsung’s products turned out to be to the original iPhone, especially considering patents held and trade dress. Google even sent Samsung emails about making sure their iPad competitor looked different, so there’s no doubt what was going on. Their newer phones and tablets are very different, and look a lot better, so they’re at least innovating now.
''Today's verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer,'' Samsung said in a statement. ''It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices. It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.''
"The ruling is a costly lesson for Samsung - but also an opportunity for a true alternative to Apple's well-known hardware with more innovative thinking and imaginative products ahead," Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note.
Which quote makes more sense?
