Thursday, July 26, 2012

Suing for Intelectual Property Infringement: The New Gold Rush

by Matt Masterson


I was Reading CNET and stumbled across this Article.



Apple brief: Samsung was warned of similarities to iPad, iPhone..................Apple initiated the action with a 2011 lawsuit in California accusing Samsung of copying "the look and feel" of its iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone, and Samsung quickly responded with a countersuit against Apple.  (Full Article)



Once again we see yet another lawsuit generated by nothing more than the ignorance of the original purpose of the Patent office. That was, Generally speaking,to protect inventors that spent thousands of hours in dingy workshops, engineering and re-engineering their product to function and serve a consumer market with a product that has not been thought of yet, or from an Engineering standpoint, a much improved product. 

Now the Patent office is stuck and being abused by Big Business to try and delineate the differences, sometimes so insignificant and minuscule that any laymen would never be able to tell what the hell the Plaintiff is even arguing about. "It has Rounded edges, ours had those first." Or " They used 4 rows of Icons, which ours had first." Are you kidding me? Now the general public may not be Engineers, but most do see what is going on here, and that's Businesses Like Apple, running Risk Management scenarios on what it would cost to sue someone-(X). What the likelihood of prevailing or settling-(Y). And what would or could be the financial Reward-(Z). And if Z is more than X and if Y is > or = to 50%, than the answer is Sue the Bastards. 

However Riddle me this. How is it that Apple was never sued over the Ipad when makers like Toshiba and IBM were putting out products well in advance of an thoughts of the IPAD existed. Take a Look at the Pictures Diagrammed below and make your own assessment.

IBM X41 2006
Toshiba Protege 2006


Believe me Apple took Due note of these very NEW Inventions. Then they went to the Lab and improved upon them and put out their own. Now I am not arguing IBM and Toshiba should have sued Apple out of the gate when the Launched the Ipad. Just that Apple should not be suing Samsung or anyone else for that matter, that are now doing just as they have done.

Editorial by Matt Masterson      matt.mm91@gmail.com