I've encountered many articles that talk about how more money is spent on patent litigation than research and development for the company's products. By an analysis done by Stanford University, it was shown that more than 20 billion dollars were spent over the last two years by the smartphone industry for patent litigation and patent purchasing. It's really a shock that these companies nowadays are more busy suing each other than creating new products and innovations.
Because of such cases, some people think the patent system should be abolished. This sounds a little extreme, as I think there should be certain rules and regulations; without them, there is a possibility for a different type of chaos. I'm not sure what types of changes and reforms will bring an end to this smartphone patent war, but hopefully companies will focus more on producing the best technologies in the near future.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/10/08/in-two-years-the-smartphone-industry-has-spent-more-than-20-billion-spent-on-patent-litigation/
Good point, I entirely agree that 'the patent system should be abolished' seems like a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting read and I do agree with your point. Do you think there should be harsher punishments for patent thievery? That may be a way of stopping firms to do it over and over again.
ReplyDeleteYa I agree with James in that the cost of patent thievery should be much greater than it is now. I believe it is not like the "patent system" is flawed or sth, it is just that the regulations are not efficient in keeping people from taking other's innovation (or sometimes, less likely but, some companies are simply not aware of the fact that they are copying other's ideas?)
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