“The U.S. judge who tossed out one of the biggest court cases in Apple Inc’s smartphone technology battle is questioning whether patents should cover software or most other industries at all,” reports Reuters.
“Richard Posner, a prolific jurist who sits on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, told Reuters this week that the technology industry’s high profits and volatility made patent litigation attractive for companies looking to wound competitors.”
Posner effectively ended Apple’s lawsuit against Google’s Motorola Mobility last month. “He canceled a closely anticipated trial between the two and rejected the iPhone maker’s request for an injunction barring the sale of Motorola products using Apple’s patented technology,” explains the article.
Posner suggests that the proliferation of patents in the software realm is a problem. “It’s not clear that we really need patents in most industries,” he says.
However, he notes that some industries, such as pharmaceuticals, “had a better claim to intellectual property protection because of the enormous investment it takes to create a successful drug,” reports Reuters.
In canceling the Apple-Motorola trial, “Posner said an injunction barring the sale of Motorola phones would harm consumers. He also rejected the idea of trying to ban an entire phone based on patents that cover individual features like the smooth operation of streaming video,” according to the report.
Posner wrote that Apple’s patent “is not a claim to a monopoly of streaming video!”
Not all judges share Posner’s view of the patent wars. Last week, for example, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in California granted Apple two pretrial injunctions against Samsung regarding the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Nexus phone, specifically citing Apple’s patent for the Siri search feature. Samsung is appealing the injunctions.
“The U.S. judge who tossed out one of the biggest court cases in Apple Inc’s smartphone technology battle is questioning whether patents should cover software or most other industries at all,” reports Reuters.
No Comments Yet
You can be the first to comment!
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.