After Apple’s substantial win against Samsung in U.S. courts recently, the Cupertino legal team must be feeling pretty good. Well, they shouldn’t be too cocky with their case against two patents held by HTC, apparently. Thomas Pender, an ITC Judge, says that “I have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid,” and that means Apple better have some pretty compelling evidence, or they should be prepared to move on to greener legal pastures.
This case revolves around patents dealing with faster transfer speeds using LTE. If HTC wins their case, it could have legal ramifications for the third generation iPad and the supposed new iPhone. In reality, this is just a further example of the patent system being used as a bargaining chip. This case is very likely being used to get Apple to settle, and leave HTC alone. While it is fairly obvious that Samsung is pretty guilty of copying their competitors, it is a shame that Apple is forced to use the patent system to get some blood. Now the battle between HTC and Apple is heating up in a similar fashion.
The problem here isn’t with Apple, Samsung, or HTC. The problem is the patent system. As they say, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” The patent wars are a giant game that wastes resources on a massive scale. If we want to see this change, bitching about Apple or HTC abusing the system isn’t going to do anything. Instead, we need to overhaul the entire thing. Sadly, that won’t be happening any time soon.
Source: Businessweek
Image Credit: Brian Turner
