In one of the biggest patent infringement cases ever, Apple is suing Samsung for as much as $2.75 billion â charging that in creating its products, Samsung ripped off iPhone and iPad technology. Samsung countered with its own allegations.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/22/159679099/jury-to-decide-apple-s-patent-case-against-samsung
Two big patent cases this summer in the smartphone industry:
A jury finds that Samsung violated Apple’s patents, and orders Samsung to pay Apple $1 billion.
A judge throws out a case between Apple and Motorola (now owned by Google). The judge goes on to write an article in the Atlantic arguing that there are too many patents in America, and lots of industries could probably get along fine with no patents at all.
These radically different rulings were just the latest reminder that the world of software patents is a mess. Big companies that should be focused on inventing the next great thing are instead spending billions of dollars buying up patents and suing each other. Small companies have to worry that someone with some random patent is going to sue them and shut them down.
On today’s show, we talk with Mark Lemley, who has some ideas for fixing the patent mess. Lemley is a professor at Stanford law school and an expert on software patents. Lemley also works for clients in the private sector, including Google.
For More: See When Patents Attack, our big patent story from last year, and The Case Against Patents, a paper by the St. Louis Fed.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/10/23/163480928/episode-412-how-to-fix-the-patent-mess
Tim Lee on patent reform — Timothy B. Lee, adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a contributor to Ars Technica, and blogger at Forbes.com, discusses the recent patent wars and the prospects for reform. Over the last two decades, large software companies like Microsoft and Apple began acquiring a significant number of patents, gaining the power to shut down or demand payment from any software company that might inadvertently infringe those patents. Lee talks about Google’s entry into the patent game, particularly with the acquisition of Motorola. He also discusses the theory behind these patent wars and how the use of patents have been altered from incentives for innovation to a litigation shield. Finally, Lee talks about different proposals for patent reform, including a first to file scheme that is part of the America Invents Act.
Tagged with law technology patents
Apple vs Samsung, the thicket that is WCIT, and more.
Tagged with twit twil law apple samsung wcit denise howell nilay patel