Nokia have come up with a cunning solution to its dropping market share – start making money off other companies’ phones instead! That’s the logic behind a lawsuit against Apple, who could end up paying up to half a billion pounds for patents infringed in the production of the iPhone. Which Nokia claim to have been telling them about all this time, but are only suing for now.
The problem is in the power of patents: it’s not necessary to actually invent a revolutionary new component, the only requirements are to be the first person to file the paperwork and convince the officials you’re the first to invent a certain sort of circuit. Or button. Or even generic term for a “social media interaction system” (which is behind an insane suit against Facebook by a tiny American company, but that’s another story.)
With Nokia it’s more likely that they did actually build a bunch of new parts, but again it’s the “first past the post” problem – where the patent protects the person, not the process, when such simple components would doubtless be invented without copying the original. The lawsuit could cost Apple anything from $200 million to a solid billion dollars, which will help Nokia in the short term, but when your revenue source becomes “Other companies selling phones” it’s definitely a danger sign.
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One Comment
Very biased article. Do some research next time.