All Smartphone companies all around the world and this include also Apple, are engaged in a tough and endless war for patent litigation. Each one of these companies encountered various problems regarding certain patent infringements and things are not that easy as it may sound for a large company.
An all-patent litigation war between the biggest players in the smartphone industry, including Apple, Samsung, Motorola and Microsoft, has started, and it seems like it does not have an end. All over the world, infringement lawsuits started against all these giant manufactures, and sometimes, they get to lose notable amounts of money.
For instance, recently, the European Court had decided that Google’s Motorola ability abused into dominance in mobile patents when it presented an injunction against Apple’s iPhone in Germany. This is not a single case of this signature. For example, the most prominent victory for the big Cupertino-based company was rewarded with $1.05 billion in a jury patent suit against Samsung. However, Samsung already filed an appeal, and the decision is still debatable. In this case, Apple will not see any money until the decision becomes irrevocable.
In the same time, Apple has suffered some patent declines from the U.S patent and Trademark Office. The respective patents, which represented a key to Apple’s litigation claims, are currently invalid, and they were related to pinch to zoom and rubber-banding GUI elements for the company’s iOS.
In the endless battle between Apple and Samsung, Apple temporarily won the injunction in the U.S. against infringing Samsung products such as Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus Smartphone. Since it was a temporary solution, the sales were allowed to resume after all.
In the battle of patent litigation for the smartphone domain, Samsung and Apple still remain the most valuable players since together account for 100 percent of the industry’s total profit.
In the same time, other small competitors such as Nokia, Microsoft, BlackBerry, HTC and other manufacturers remain small players in the lucrative smart devices industry, with small success and less profit.
Both Samsung’s and Apple’s CEOs debated the issues of patent litigation. While Tim Cook confessed the fact that the Fruit Company chooses to settle litigation than take it to court, Samsung’s executive describes the current litigation as a loss for the Smartphone industry and the lawsuits stagnated the process of innovation.
When the stake is that high and the profit reaches high limits, the smartphone field will become a hard place to live. There will always be patent infringement lawsuits, patent litigations or any other legal problem. The war is unlikely to end in the next years.
