Submitted by Fascinating infographic on the all the patent stuff going on in the mobile world today. Another infographic summarises the patent lawsuits between Apple and Samsung specifically (via). On a sidenote, what’s the deal with infographics these days? Did someone decide they were cool without telling me?
Something is missing there (i.e. Apple and Samsung are portrayed as equal). Is Samsung known for active patent trolling and abusing patents in offensive manner like Apple? So far Samsung is forced to wage war because of Apple’s attacks, which I’d say is the only reasonable way to apply these patents, and that’s what defensive patent pools are for (i.e. if someone attacks member of the pool with patents, pool patents are used to strike the attacker back).
The only functional way to stop greed-blinded patent abusers is to get them into the MAD situation, which will force them to stop fighting.
Edited 2011-10-05 21:57 UTC
I can think of a few words to describe these patent lawsuits and anything having to do with them, but fascinating is not one of them.
Anyway, as to why I’m posting …
I wanted to ask Thom – what exactly do you hope to accomplish by posting all of this patent stuff? I’m sure that the majority of the readers on this site agree with your position, and the rest of us couldn’t be bothered to care.
I’m guessing you hope these sorts of articles on this site (and others) will inspire Americans to elect new officials that will put into place some patent reforms, but surely you must know by now that any potential candidates we have to choose from are bought and paid for already. So, as Rambo so eloquently put it in his last movie, unless you’re coming with weapons, you ain’t changing nothin’. Thus, do you advocate a violent revolution? And if not, what the f**k do you suggest? I mean, there HAS to be a reason why you keep boring us with this crap.
Edited 2011-10-05 21:57 UTC
This is defining the technology world RIGHT NOW, and will shape the tech world of the future. Not reporting on this is irresponsible. Just because you find it boring doesn’t mean no one should report on it.
People like you come up all the time, for different topics. Now it’s patents, but we’ve had people like you for Ubuntu, Windows 7, the iPhone, the iPad, heck, even about Amiga.
I’m sorry I can’t please everyone. You’ll just have to live with it
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I didn’t ask you WHY you were reporting on it. After all, I’m sure you wouldn’t bother reporting on it if you didn’t think it could accomplish anything. I’m just asking what you think/hope writing about it will accomplish, given the fact that are elected representatives (and pretty much anybody who ends up on a voting ballot) work for the patent holders.
I mean do you envision mass boycotts of these companies, overthrowing the government by force, or what? Basically, instead of posting half a dozen patent rants every week, how about we start talking solutions?
Edited 2011-10-05 23:01 UTC
This is a tech news site. They are here to report the various goings on in the technology world, not to post any given person’s idea of what the solution to a given problem may be. That’s what blogs and the comments section are for.
I don’t see why these extremely obvious things I just typed are so hard for you to comprehend.
So you think it’s better he just give up?
Besides, this is a news site, so why does he need a reason to publish news items?
I think you basically summarized it yourself right there.
The more often this ridiculousness shows up in the press, the more people will continue to push back on their public officials to do something about it.
More and more people I know are becoming familiar with the patent lawsuits and how harmful they are to consumers. If every blog and news site keeps ramming this down people’s throats, they have no choice but to become informed.
The more often they see it, the more often they’ll think about it.
Stop pretending the world doesn’t work this way.
FWIW, I read almost every article about this topic, even though I’m already extremely familiar with it – and I hope to get some tidbit of information out of each one that I can use to educate myself and others on the intricacies – so stuff it.
I think there might a point of diminishing returns somewhere there, a “good enough” one (generally, wasting one bit of life here, another there…)
That is by far the least relevant, least coherent argument against software patents I’ve ever seen. Patents are bad because they lead to lawsuits. Well, then drunk driving laws are bad because they lead to arrests. You have to make some kind of case with evidence that intervention is worse than non-intervention, or in this case, that protection is worse than non-protection.
The only instance in which that case was even partially made was with patent trolls (NPEs), but the closing paragraph actually disregards them by describing a “war being waged between tech companies”, and patent trolls are not tech companies.
I would argue that we can’t have standards without patents. Without patents, all inventions are proprietary trade secrets, and without FRAND, all standards are government fiat, and we all know how slow government moves.