Yes, they have lots of fish to fry right now, but if they can spend time arguing about incandescent light bulbs [1], surely there must be some time on the legislature to sort this mess out? The whole thing has turned from skirmish into full-on war in less than a couple of years. I can't imagine how much worse it's going to get.
From a non-techy perspective, nothing's really happening. Barring any Samsung Galaxy fans in Europe who saw the Tab delayed a few weeks. The practical impact of these sorts of things isn't immediate or obvious at all.
And from the perspective of an IP professional, or someone who regularly follows IP happenings, nothing notably new is happening. These lawsuits have been lobbed back and forth from tech companies in hot industry segments for decades now. It heats up in highly competitive markets, particularly those enjoying rapid innovation simply because the IP concerns aren't well settled. Consider the earlier days of the web or the biopharma industry not so long ago. There was no shortage of IP gamesmanship then.
The only thing particularly new here, is the level of coverage the tech press is giving the issue. Not least of all because "Apple", "Google" and "patent" are some of the most effective traffic generating keywords.
None of this is to say the state of affairs is good, or healthy. I'm just saying that if you're not a tech enthusiast with little context for IP actions, there's really no reason you'd see the current smartphone situation as being particularly new, different or dangerous.
You find it unfathomable that Congress, a body largely composed of lawyers, is not reacting to one of the greatest stimulus packages for lawyers?
I would find it unfathomable if they changed the status quo.
However, maybe the patent wars (like this HTC v. Apple one) will climb to such heights of absurdity that the economy actually will be affected. Then Congress (or someone) might have to take notice.
There are many, many things in the DMCA that I disagree with, but it also has huge benefits and is responsible for making possible many sites you use every day, such as Youtube. The safe harbor exemptions in the DMCA make it possible for a service provider to host user content without worrying about being crushed under copyright claims; if you deal with DMCA takedowns when they come in, you're A-OK. Likewise, the DMCA made clear many elements of fair-use around reverse-engineering, but we don't ever hear about this because the same clauses also make many other things illegal.
The DMCA is really a mixed bag. I'd love to see most of it go away, as it's personally impacted me on many occasions, but it also has good -- essential, many would say -- parts.
Placing the blame on Congress generally spreads the incorrect belief that all legislators and both parties are responsible for criminally stupid stuff like this. They're not.
That's the way Congress loves to roll: they won't explicitly ban something they don't like (so they can save face with their constituents), but they'll do everything they can to make it untenable.
Look at how much Taiwanese money will be spent on U.S. lawyers. Yeah, Apple has to spend money too, but it's not leaving the country. HTC's money is new money to the country.
Joking aside, it would be a stupid and counterproductive policy, but probably better than what's happening. At least it would be a plan instead of a slow decline.
Why doesn't Google take responsibility of all these lawsuits? Afterall HTC, Samsung, LG and all other device makers are having to cough up money because they adopted android.
Google should lead the charge here and not leave it to its partners to fight it out.
Which of these you say are related to hardware look and feel?
If they want patent indemnity, let them go to Microsoft, which provides patent indemnification to WP7 in exchange of $15 or so of licensing fees. (Same with desktop Windows vs. Linux).
Of course going with Microsoft is an option but all these partners have been there done that. So they know better. :)
I don't see anything dishonest about it. It was given away for free after all and the OEMs software usually sucks as a universal rule. They leveraged the Android marketplace and ecosystem, Maps etc.
>Of course going with Microsoft is an option but all these partners have been there done that. So they know better. :)
I don't know what that snark means, but the meme keeps getting repeated. OEMs have been making rich profits all along selling PCs (and from crippling them with useless software that makes them even more money, causing people to blame Windows for their faults). It's not as if Microsoft bought Dell and then clobbered the other OEMs(like Google seems to be in real danger of doing with Motorola).
WP7 looks much more competitive though. I have Focus. Love it.