Impact: Will Apple Victory Over Samsung Shift the Balance of Power?
By Rob Scott
August 27, 2012
August 27, 2012
- Apple’s decisive victory over Samsung on Friday fortifies its current wireless dominance and could potentially make Google and others rethink future product plans.
- “The nine jurors here also sent a signal that companies need to be much more careful in incorporating basic design elements in their electronic devices, particularly those affecting the way gadgets look and feel,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
- The verdict arrives just weeks before Apple is expected to unveil its new iPhone. The company has earned $156 billion in iPhone-related revenue in the last five years.
- Patent lawyers anticipate the decision will lead to an increase in patent suits and may open new ground for litigation. More companies may use Apple’s success in the case to defend the design and features of their own products.
- WSJ explains: “More courtroom warfare could raise costs to makers of smartphones and tablets and reduce the number of gadgets on the market — increasing prices to consumers, some lawyers and market watchers say.”
- Products with similar form factors and features may be in peril, notes the article: “Not only Samsung but Google — and other smartphone makers who use its Android mobile operating software — could decide, or be forced, to drop or modify features to avoid running afoul of patents.”
- While some developers claim the verdict could lead to higher costs for Android software, other analysts suggest that Apple is not the only innovator out there.
- “Apple’s patents will not be that hard to design around,” says Jorge Contreras, associate professor at American University Washington College of Law. “I don’t see this verdict as an Android killer.”
- Google believes that most of the patents in the case do not relate to the core Android operating system. “The mobile industry is moving fast and all players, including newcomers, are building upon ideas that have been around for decades,” said a Google spokesperson.
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