Samsung Fires Back After Apple Launches Patent Nuclear War; Sues Over Five Patents In Three Countries
from the what-a-waste dept
For a while, it really did seem like the patent "cold war" system was working. Big companies wouldn't sue other big companies out of fear of launching the patent nuclear war response, as the other big company would have a stack of patents of its own that it would use to countersue. Yet, recently, we're noticing more and more "nuclear" wars breaking out, with big companies suing other big companies... only to have the sued company find some patents and countersue. A lot of these patent wars seem to involve Apple. It's involved in suits and countersuits with HTC and Nokia (though, Nokia started that one). And, of course, with Apple's recent bizarre decision to sue Samsung for patent infringement, it was only a matter of time for the counterstrike.Indeed, just days later, Samsung has countersued Apple for infringing on five of its patents. Of course, adding a bit of a twist to the usual script, Samsung has filed those lawsuits around the globe: one in South Korea, one in Japan and one in Germany. Of course, these sorts of battles should show how screwed up the patent system is today. None of these patents have anything to do with actual innovation. None of them represent something so amazing that it wouldn't have been created by someone anyway as a part of the natural progression of mobile phones. It's a bunch of basic ideas, locked up, which are now being used for big companies to sue each other... such that money can be diverted from any actual innovation to paying a bunch of lawyers.
