From 2006 until now, Apple has been involved in 148 lawsuits regarding intellectual property, the company ranking first in a "top" of companies involved in such actions. Looking only at the year 1, we could understand why such a large number was reached, Apple having at the moment opened several dozens of lawsuits with some Android terminal manufacturers, but in the past things were not so different, although Apple was actively involved in fewer lawsuits. The launch of Android changed a lot, including the way money is invested, and that could kill innovation.
In the Orange Bloggers Bus Tour I attended a presentation given by Georges Nahon, CEO of Orange Labs San Francisco, and he said that at the moment companies spend more money on the acquisition of technologies than on their development. Well, he is right, because last year Apple and Google they invested more money in processes regarding intellectual property and in the acquisition of invention patents than in the development of new technologies. Although it seems strange that these companies choose to follow such a path, the truth is that at the moment they have no choice, if they want to remain competitive on the market. Apple and Google need patents to keep their products on sale, they can't patent existing ones, they can't invent technologies in a few months, so they buy very important technology patents from others and use them in court.
"Apple has always stood for innovation," the company wrote in a statement in response to questions from The New York Times. "To protect our inventions, we have patented many of the new technologies in these groundbreaking and category-defining products. In the rare cases when we take legal action over a patent dispute, it's only as a last resort.
"We think companies should dream up their own products rather than willfully copying ours, and in August a jury in California reached the same conclusion," the statement said.
In the last decade, the number of invention patents sent annually by Apple for registration has increased 10 times, the company being extremely active in this field, but unfortunately many of their inventions never reach consumers. You may not know this, but Apple had to send 10 versions of the documentation on the basis of which the patent for Siri was registered, and probably the situation was not different in the case of other technologies. Although it invests a lot of money in the development of new technologies, Apple invests much more in buying other companies that have important intellectual property and in patent processes, and in the end this will destroy innovation.
In conclusion, probably in the future there will be even less emphasis on the development of new technologies and on the reuse of those purchased and not yet used, this trend being dangerous both for consumers and for companies.
