The stories keep on coming about Apple vs. competitors battling in out in the courtroom. Just last week, a small Spanish tablet manufacturer by the name of NT-K decided to sue Apple for anti-competitive behavior, after succeeding in defending itself against a patent infringement suit Apple brought against them. Motorola just won a patent infringement suit against Apple in a German court, claiming Apple infringed on two of their communications patents in production of the iPhone and iPad. The court granted a halt on sales of the devices in Germany and ordered Apple to compensate Motorola for the infringements, dating back to 2003. Samsung is also involved in a high profile patent infringement case against Apple and believes the German ruling will work in their favor. Samsung initially lost several of their cases attempting to defend the use of technologies Apple claimed infringed on their intellectual property, but has since counter-sued, citing infringing use of communications patents (similar to Motorola’s accusations).
Yet another court battle now comes to light as computer scientist David Gelernter appeals a ruling in Apple’s favor after attempting to file suit against them for infringing on his patents revolving around the user interfaced eventually used in OS X. Professor Gelernter is possibly best known as a victim of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski. He received a pipe bomb in the mail at his Yale office which exploded and left him seriously injured, back in 1993. He also started his own company, Mirror Worlds, marketing Scopeware, a computer interface which created a stream of icons representing documents of many types stretching into the past and future. Users could slide the strip of icons back and forth to view them. He attempted to market the concept to various state agencies and businesses, but it never caught on and he was forced to shut down his company by 2004. In 2005, Apple announced Spotlight, Cover Flow and Time Machine in Mac OS X, all of which had a considerable amount in common with Gelernter’s product. His initial lawsuit against Apple included evidence of infringement including an email from Steve Jobs in 2001, ordering his staff to look into the Scopeware product and suggesting Apple might want to license the technology for future products. The jury agreed with Gelernter and awarded him a stunning $625 million in damages. However, Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court overruled the jury in April, claiming insufficient evidence was presented that Apple actually violated Mirror Worlds’ patents.
Regardless of the merits of these individual cases, I find it disturbing that patent law has become such a battleground for corporations. Rather than serving its intended purpose of ensuring inventors get an opportunity to profit from creative new ideas, patents are now treated as corporate acquisitions, used against the competition whenever possible to maximize profits with lawsuits. The companies with the most patents are often not even coming up with the patentable ideas themselves. Rather, they’re purchasing them from others and stockpiling them. Google’s recent purchase of over 1,000 IBM patents is one recent example. If we want to see real advances in technology that benefit everyone, companies need to concentrate on innovation, not litigation.
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