Thursday, August 18, 2011

Patent Fighting

There has been some heated legal battles recently between Apple vs. the Android world, and those includes phone manufacturers such as Samsung, Motorola, HTC, etc. It is rather interesting to witness that these companies are spending millions on legal fees just to tough it out on patents that may or may not be legitimately infringement upon. Granted it takes a lot of resources and efforts to build up the patent portfolio to begin with and it is in these companys' interest to protect their essential intellectual properties. But given the time and resources they spend on the legal front, they can certainly be spent else where to entrench their respective company's core strengths. Looking from a historical trends, most of these patent disputes are settled via cross-licensing method, ultimately ending in a truce format for both parties. If this is how it's going to conclude, then why bother with the battle in the first place? Whether it is for PR recognition or self-defense purpose, I personally think legal battles never portray a good image for either side.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/08/16/idINIndia-58812420110816

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