The article "The sky is not falling: Navigating the smartphone patent thicket" by Jeffrey Lewis and Ryan Mott, dated February 2013, is an excellent summary of the ongoing patent war and its representation of "a milestone of progress". With their professional expertise on intellectual property, Lewis and Mott has shown that the ongoing patent war is nothing new in the world of patents. They term the situation as a "patent thicket" which means that every company owns a patent to a part of the whole, but none to everything, which led to multiple companies suing one another. By using an example from history - the sewing machine, they explained how the then patent thicket came to an end. It is definitely an interesting read and I recommend all of you to check out the article if you have not done so.
As for my personal take on patent wars, I agree with the writers that the war represents a huge milestone in technological advances. After all, it created a whole new market well worth the investment. It changes the lifestyle of people. It became easier and faster to come up with individual unique designs at a low cost of failure. Tailors are able to try out different kinds of designs and patterns and industrial machines do not need to be modified to cater to each new design, until they are proven to suit the consumers. Ain't that a milestone? Fashion changes so fast that there's a new style almost every decade, while previously people wore the same designs for decades before cultural interaction influence their sense of dressing. Of course, before that happened, many long years and much money were spent battling for supremacy.
The current smartphone patent war may not be near its end, but I feel proud to be living through its fight. It will end one day, everyone will get sick and tired of fighting anyway, and it will be interesting to compare how different life is before and after the war. Already, it is currently way different from a decade ago! For now, it might be the least of their concerns but I do hope, one day, the corporations will take into account the social impact of such devices when coming up with newer products. There is a growing trend in technology addiction. We'll see how it goes in the decade to come.
As for my personal take on patent wars, I agree with the writers that the war represents a huge milestone in technological advances. After all, it created a whole new market well worth the investment. It changes the lifestyle of people. It became easier and faster to come up with individual unique designs at a low cost of failure. Tailors are able to try out different kinds of designs and patterns and industrial machines do not need to be modified to cater to each new design, until they are proven to suit the consumers. Ain't that a milestone? Fashion changes so fast that there's a new style almost every decade, while previously people wore the same designs for decades before cultural interaction influence their sense of dressing. Of course, before that happened, many long years and much money were spent battling for supremacy.
The current smartphone patent war may not be near its end, but I feel proud to be living through its fight. It will end one day, everyone will get sick and tired of fighting anyway, and it will be interesting to compare how different life is before and after the war. Already, it is currently way different from a decade ago! For now, it might be the least of their concerns but I do hope, one day, the corporations will take into account the social impact of such devices when coming up with newer products. There is a growing trend in technology addiction. We'll see how it goes in the decade to come.
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