On Friday, Apple won against the conflicting patent war against Samsung. Well, at least in the United Sates. Nine jurors gave the call that Samsung has indeed infringed upon six out of seven patents from Apple. Apple also accuses Samsung for copying the iPhone hardware design. As a result, Samsung has to pay a sum of $1billion+ to Apple. This may also result in a ban on more than 7 Galaxy products, including Nexus S, Galaxy S and Galaxy S II.
The features copied are simple navigation methods that many touchscreen phone users use daily. The list includes scrolling bounce-back, pinch-to-zoom, tap-to-zoom, centering capability, multi-touch and one-fingered scrolling. The verdict was correct because Apple indeed patented these small methods, and Samsung was guilty on infringing them. The problem lies in the USA patent system.
As a matter of fact, no company should own a patent for basic software related ideas, gestures or designs. Because, in such a system everyone has to apply for patents for numerous small things. The market can evolve this way by competing companies making better products and the consumer gets the benefit.
Now Apple is acting like a stubborn child and it wants nobody to copy their design of iPhone, which is as basic as it gets - a rounded rectangle. Does it matter, really? There are so many TV sets in the market, and they all look the same..! At this moment, Microsoft and Nokia's engineers would be very happy to lock themselves with their distinctive designs of squares and squircles respectively.
The features copied are simple navigation methods that many touchscreen phone users use daily. The list includes scrolling bounce-back, pinch-to-zoom, tap-to-zoom, centering capability, multi-touch and one-fingered scrolling. The verdict was correct because Apple indeed patented these small methods, and Samsung was guilty on infringing them. The problem lies in the USA patent system.
As a matter of fact, no company should own a patent for basic software related ideas, gestures or designs. Because, in such a system everyone has to apply for patents for numerous small things. The market can evolve this way by competing companies making better products and the consumer gets the benefit.
Now Apple is acting like a stubborn child and it wants nobody to copy their design of iPhone, which is as basic as it gets - a rounded rectangle. Does it matter, really? There are so many TV sets in the market, and they all look the same..! At this moment, Microsoft and Nokia's engineers would be very happy to lock themselves with their distinctive designs of squares and squircles respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment