Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Week 5 Blog 2 - More Spending

This morning, I read an article from Thomas Reuters that talked about how not only the smartphone and technology industry, but other businesses located in industries such as energy, health care, and manufacturing intend to increase intellectual property litigation spending. By a survey of around 400 companies, it was found that around a quarter of those firms will be involved in more lawsuits concerning patent litigation compared to the last several years. Thus, companies have decided to increase their intellectual property litigation budget, meaning that they will decrease spending in other areas, such as development of their products.
As I have previously discussed in my previous posts, I hope this will not impede the production of new products and advancements of the companies. For companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue, it is said that participating in lawsuits over intellectual property costs them at least $1 million each time.

The graph below (data only till 2010) suggests that the number of patent lawsuits will continue increasing, even at a slow rate. By further research, I found out that the number of such lawsuits slightly decreased in 2011, but rose again in 2012. Most likely, we will see another increase this year.


http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2013/02_-_February/Businesses_plan_to_boost_IP_litigation_spending_-_survey/


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8 comments:

  1. Adam RembaFebruary 27, 2013 at 6:08 PM

    As companies face more and more frivolous lawsuits, they must find a way to pay for these exorbitant trial costs. With patent trolls and everyone suing each other for this and that, companies need to be able to have sufficient resources to keep up with what is going on.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 27, 2013 at 10:23 PM

    While manufacturing industries shifted to Asian countries, it's no surprise that company will invest more in protecting their IP through lawsuits.

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  3. UnknownFebruary 28, 2013 at 10:51 AM

    The tech industry has set an example within the patent industry of chasing after frivolous patent litigation cases rather than focusing on innovation; and as the tech industry is the leading example many industries follow--other sectors following suit is no surprise. I only worry for what the future will hold if we have collectively decided to move backward.

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  4. Harshil GoelMarch 3, 2013 at 11:48 PM

    The spike that happened in 2007 is amazing. I wonder what caused it. I also wonder if this trend extends internationally.

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  5. JosefMarch 4, 2013 at 2:42 AM

    This reminds me of advertising a little, pay another company an exorbitant sum of money because it generates revenue in the long run.

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  6. Peter KwonMarch 4, 2013 at 3:47 PM

    Because technology evolves faster than ever today, I wonder if these patents Apple and Samsung desperately fight over may become obsolete in the next decade with an even newer generation of mobile devices.

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  7. UnknownMarch 4, 2013 at 5:11 PM

    Interesting. I don't understand why companies have to come to this and allocate money to be used towards litigation instead of R&D. Companies should jsut equally compete with one another instead of foreplanning or even making a budget for litigations. that is just absurd. These companies themselves seem like trolls.

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  8. ShayanMarch 24, 2013 at 10:36 PM

    Jeez this makes me want to get into Patent Law... There is no real end in sight, as long as companies keep innovating, keep competing, and there is a relatively even distribution of brains (engineering team) between the largest tech companies, this will be a continuing trend.

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