I was surprised to find during my research of the Apple and Samsung patent war that the vast majority of the patents each holds is for interface design. I also found that it was from these patents that most of the lawsuits stemmed.
Design has been more and more revered in the technological world in the past decade. Today, understanding user needs and how a user will interact with a technology is vital in its success. In this regard, Apple is very much an exception. Apple is notorious for not conducting user testing, however, they are still usually successful with product releases and software updates. Samsung conducts a lot of user testing and collects much data about UI designs. Design is definitely headed in a human-centered direction and despite Apple not conducting extensive testing, it would not surprise me if the two company's designs started to converge over time. Both companies make consumer products, and because consumers are at the center of their design process, two companies can easily adopt similar user interfaces in certain aspects.
Both companies also use litigation to slow down the other's innovation. If one company goes after the other for infringement and there are millions, or even billions, of dollars are on the line, the company will be sure to proceed with extra caution when innovating. This hindrance can result in huge revenue for the company that files the lawsuit. When both companies utilize this technique, it becomes an all out patent war and the lawsuits become less about the patents and more about the time. With design being such a center of innovation on both sides, it quickly becomes the focal point of litigation. Even something as basic as bouncing icons can be grounds for a lawsuit.
With this in mind, it becomes difficult to not fall into the "patent war" mentality, because if a company does not file for a lawsuit, they can be quickly overrun by competitive companies.
Hello Ian,
ReplyDeleteI agree that companies should sue the other companies if they feel their products are being copied. By doing that, it makes a company to stay competitive and makes a company appreciate what they made. After all, isn't that what patents are all about?
I also saw that many of debates between Samsung and Apple are design issues. I feel that it's that way because many of the technologies are being used in other phones. But when I look those two phones closely(back when litigation was first filed), they were very similar. I remember the boxes that Samsung used were exactly similar to the ones that apple used. Also, many of the design and interface were very similar. Again, that's how I viewed, but it could be different depending on how people viewed it.