Given that all the money recently spent by these two tech
giant goes to high-priced copyright lawyers, will the Apple v Samsung case
eventually stifle consumer tech product innovation?
By: Ringo Bones
Back in August 25, 2012, a US jury in a California court
decided that South Korea based tech giant Samsung should pay Apple 1.05 billion
US dollars for copyright infringement – i.e. the jury found Samsung guilty of
copying critical features of rival Apple products for use in manufacturing
their mobile smartphone and tablet computer line – for profit. Sadly, it is we
– the consumer – who are bound to loose in titanic corporate battles such as
these that involve copyright infringement and arcane patent laws, because the
expense of such courtroom dramas are directly passed on to us.
Money that should have been spent on innovation – as in
research and development or R N’ D - by the two tech giants are now destined to
be spent on high-priced copyright lawyers. And in the complex world of patent
law legalese, money merely paid to a high-priced copyright lawyer doesn’t have
any return of investment. For all intents and purposes, it is a dead end
investment. Thus consumers could be facing higher-priced mobile smartphones and
tablet computers during their holiday shopping sprees right up to Christmas.
But here in the Far East, Samsung holds the lion’s share of
the market in mobile smartphones and tablet computers because on average, their
products only cost one third that of equivalent Apple i-Phones and i-Pads -
especially here in Singapore and Hong Kong. Sadly, by the close of the Monday
August 27, 2012 trading day, Samsung’s stocks took on a nosedive that resulted
in 12 billion US dollars being wiped off the South Korea based tech giant’s
value.
No comments:
Post a Comment