Unless you’ve been hiding in a hole over the last few months you should be aware that Apple was suing Samsung for patent infringements and recently won a judgement for just over $1 billion.
This at first glance appeared to be a case of bad judgement on Samsungs part. However when you look at the patents that Apple sued over, you’ll be left scratching your head. The patents in question are for generic funtions, shapes and colours. You can see the patents over at Business Insider (here). Some of the patents in question are:
- Utility Patent 163: Enlarging documents by tapping the screen (Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-versus-samsung-2012-8?op=1#ixzz24rTqvCNY)
- Utility Patent 381: ‘Bounce-back’ feature when scrolling beyond the edge of a page. This is also known as the rubber band patent. (Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-versus-samsung-2012-8?op=1#ixzz24rU0BQTh)
- Design Patent 087: Ornamental design of the iPhone (white color) (Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-versus-samsung-2012-8?op=1#ixzz24rU9a2Y4)
- Design Patent 677: Ornamental design of the iPhone (black color) (Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-versus-samsung-2012-8?op=1#ixzz24rUFKB4T)
- Design Patent 305: Rounded square icons on interface (Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-versus-samsung-2012-8?op=1#ixzz24rUKSFad)
At first glance these patents are ridiculous and it is mind boggling how anyone could issue a patent on such generic design elements. The patents in question are not innovative and in my opinion should be invalidated. At the end of the day, no generic process or design element should be allowed to be patented.
Patents should be available to protect true technical innovations, development of a leading new drug, really anything that is truely innovative. Patents should exist to ensure that a company making an investment in innovation have time to recoup the R & D costs involved before it becomes widely used in the marketplace.
Anyways, just my 2 cents. What do you think? Leave your thoughts below.