Google, Samsung, Others, Sued by Rockstar Consortium

[mynith]

And who wins in these ridiculous patent wars? The companies? No. The customers? No. Just those goddamn lawyers again.

 

[Karl Mose]

If this suit is succesful the biggest losers are the customers. Blackberry, Microsoft and Apple suing Google doesn't surprise me, but honestly I had expected better from Sony. Correct me if I'm wrong but it just seems a little leachy for them to use Google's OS on their phones and then suing them.

 

[g-unit1111]

Ha just last night I was having a very lively discussion about patent trolling in my accounting class, I should bring this article in for the next one. :lol:

 

[tolham]

This is the epitome of capitalistic greed: rather than combine their collective patent knowledge and wealth to make something they could ALL profit from as well as benefiting society, they have to bring one another down.

to be fair, patents only exist because the govt issues them, and then willingly participates in the patent wars by providing the battle grounds. if the govt were to stay out of the market, there would be no patents to fight over.

 

[urbanman2004]

Frivolous waste of time and tax money. This has to stop

 

[JD88]

Frivolous waste of time and tax money. This has to stop

Not to mention damage to the economy. It won't, but what if this did put Google out of business? Google is about as big as it gets when it comes to American success stories and the only one of the tech giants that is making phones and other products here in the U.S. by U.S. workers. If this were one of the big 3 automakers, there would be all sorts of negative press about how dirty it is. For those who don't know, Google is worth over 6 times what General Motors is.

Obama pardons Apple's patent offences while they continue to shill cheap Chinese made crap at outrageous margins. My next phone will be a Motorola.

 

[kjordan_29]

Patents are not an obstacle. Companies who develop technology should get the rights to it. Why would they spend money on research otherwise? Just ignorant... Companies should not just be able to rip off technology without paying for it, which is called licensing. Look it up.

 

[JD88]

Patents are not an obstacle. Companies who develop technology should get the rights to it. Why would they spend money on research otherwise? Just ignorant... Companies should not just be able to rip off technology without paying for it, which is called licensing. Look it up.

Half true. Many patents are pretty broad, especially in the technology world. In a lot of cases, patents are used only with the intent of trying to sue someone else later. They have their place in some instance where there is true innovation, but that is often not the case.

No one can claim to have the rights to things like "square LED screen" or "app icons on a homescreen."

 

[Nilo BP]

The whole idea of intellectual property (no pun intended) is wrong.

Why do we have property? Wouldn't it be better if everyone could have everything? Obviously it would. Unfortunately that's not quite how this world of ours works. You and I can't both use your car, for example. But this doesn't apply to ideas. The "stealing" of an idea doesn't take the idea away from the person who first had it. That's the only workable criterion.

For example, the idea of setting up a store in a neighborhood. Nobody in their right mind claims that store Y is "stealing" store X's idea of setting up shop there and thus should be made to pay for lost revenue. Or that Mrs. Smith, seller of homemade cakes, stole Mrs. Ann's idea of using hazelnuts in her recipe and should be put out of business. Because any sane person understands that enforcing this kind of thing would 1) be ridiculous and 2) lead to insanity. 1 is a matter of opinion, 2 is happening right before our eyes.