Skip to main content

Thought Police

Yesterday I watched a live blog of the reading of the trial verdict in Apple v Samsung. The trial was complex, and the jury had to break down each patent by device. In the end, Apple won the day. They didn't get everything they wanted, but in contrast, Samsung got nothing.

I'm sure there will be an appeal, and this whole mess will drag on for another year or so, but it certainly says a lot about the patent system in this country. After deciding if Samsung had violated Apple's patents, the jury had to answer the question of if they thought those patents were actually valid. In all cases they said 'yes'. By the same token they had to answer if Apple violated patents, and even though they said Apple did NOT violate Samsung's patents, they also upheld Samsung's patents as well.

My personal assessment of all of this is that you had a jury full of regular people, who frankly, could probably have cared less about the mountains of patent law that was presented to them. They saw the stunning visuals of an iPhone next to a Galaxy S, and as I pointed out in an earlier blog, they saw the blatant copying that had taken place, and made an easy decision. The fact that they reached a verdict on a Friday also meant that they were probably quite tired of the whole trial and just wanted to go home for the weekend.

So where does this leave patent law? Even though I think the jury made the correct decision about Samsung copying Apple, I do wonder if we've ended up in a worse place for technology. Many of the technology patents that were disputed in this trial were about "how" something behaves. The way a screen rubber bands when you pull down on it, for example. At a certain point, you have to question if there's a ton of value is securing simple "ideas" like this from duplication.

But yet the flip side to the argument is that if a programmer comes up with a really cool way to do something, shouldn't they get the reward of being the first to financially benefit from it? So perhaps there's a middle ground. Maybe we need a different type of patent system that still can protect creative ideas, but doesn't brazenly lock them down for 20 years.

So here's my simple contribution to the who patent discussion. Let's let technology "idea" patents continue, but let's limit the term on them to 2-3 years. If a company is going to make a windfall on a particular idea, it's going to be as soon as the product hits the market. Let's allow them make their profit,  and then free the idea to all the people who want to copy it after it's 'old hat'.

Maybe it's a silly idea, and things probably won't be changing in our patent system any time soon, but maybe if we're open to some new thoughts and ideas, future generations will take the next step at making things better for innovators as well as people who benefit from cool ideas. Hmm... maybe I should patent my silly 'idea' before it's too late....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The beat goes on

Yesterday Apple revealed their long awaited entry into the streaming music field. They were able to do this quickly because of the acquisition of Beats last year, and the systems and intellectual property that came with that purchase. Considering that the music reveal was pretty much the only big news out of a pretty benign developer keynote, I'll take a few moments to talk about what I think about it. Apple was perhaps the defining company in the music revolution of the past 20 years. With the introduction of the iPod that revolutionized portable music, to the creation of the iTunes store and the eventual death of DRM, Apple has been at the forefront of digital music. This leadership comes with high expectations to continue to lead, and so many people have long questioned Apple not getting into the streaming music business quicker. For the past few years new companies have come forth to lead the change in the streaming music evolution. From Pandora and its ability to create un

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

So I've been a horrible blog author and have neglected this site for far to long. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, I've just neglected to say it. So with an attempt to get back on the wagon, here's some thoughts on Microsoft's announcement yesterday for it's Surface Pro 3. Despite being a minor Apple fanboy, the most interesting company to watch, in the personal computing space right now, is Microsoft. With the departure of Steve Ballmer, and the rise of Satya Nadella, it has been an interesting 9 months for one of the founding pioneers of personal technology. Many agree that Windows 8 has not lived up to what Microsoft would like it to be. They made a bold attempt to redefine how users interact with their computers, and merge the tablet and desktop experience. However, that experiment, by most accounts, has failed. This is a common pattern for Microsoft however, alternating between a mediocre OS release, and then a stellar one. Therefore, it&#

The Great Experiment

Recently, a tech journalist that I've followed for many years, and who is an Apple fanboy, posted a series talking about why he switched from an iPhone to an Android phone . It's a good read, and worth the time to see why he made the decision he did. Since I have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus sitting on my desk as a Wi-Fi device, I thought, "What the heck, let's give this a go for a week." So for the past week I've shelved my trusty iPhone 5 and have delved deep into the world of stock Android 4.1. So in the spirit of "copying is the sincerest form of flattery" here's my write-up of my experiences with Google's mobile OS. First, I need to make one caveat. After using the Nexus for a week I have to say that I do NOT like this device. It constantly loses 4G signal, and the battery life almost makes it unusable. I could barely make it to lunch before I was at 20-30% battery. So in the spirit of fairness, if I truly wanted to switch full time to Andro