Apple-Samsung Patent War Grinds On

The latest court decision in the Apple-Samsung patent war was a resounding defeat for Apple. Whatever you think about the merits of the case, however, Tim Worstall points out that the system isn’t working:

It’s easy enough to forget that the smartphone patent wars are still rumbling along. The actual competitive issues were all settled some years ago, the market has entirely moved on from the issues that were being discussed. However, the court cases over those patents carry on: and that’s exactly what is wrong with the system that we’ve got at present.

..taking 5 years to decide (assuming that there won’t be yet more appeals) in a market with a new generation of devices at least every year simply isn’t timely. Those competitive issues over who gets to sell what based upon copying or innovation have receded way back into the mists of time. None of the products under discussion are still on sale and haven’t been for a couple of years now. Whatever market opportunity either party had, either Apple or Samsung, is dead and gone now. But we’re still trying to decide over who should have that market opportunity? It’s just not working.