http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/apple-defeats-samsung-in-california.html
http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/02/korea-fair-trade-commission-clears.html
http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/02/korea-fair-trade-commission-clears.html
In the last blog, I
talked about what is Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and what are the issues
caused by them. Now, I would like to pay a close attention to the smartphone
industry and explore some of the battles among companies and what are the
implications.
“In the smartphone and
device space, many SEPs pertain to WiFi, 3G and 4G (such as WiMAX and LTE)
technology that allows all wireless broadband devices to utilize the networks
of wireless broadband providers.”
Standardization can have
a lot of benefits. If we think about wall sockets, there are all exactly the
same so that we can charge many different electronic devices using the same
socket. Because of standardization, we can have more robust innovations in a
particular industry since they are very similar to one another and they must
compete on R&D in order to gain market share.
Samsung was accused of
abusing its SEPs and breaking the antitrust laws by Apple, but Korea Fair Trade
Commission (KFTC) found the otherwise to be true and I cite it here: "more than 50 companies hold over 15,000
SEPs relating to 3G wireless communication (UMTS/WCDMA) technology".
So far, there is only one SEP infringement lawsuit filed
by Samsung prevailed, U.S. Patent No. 7,756,087, and the rest of them are not
successful. What’s more striking is Samsung
actually has zero successful non-SEP
assertions worldwide. It has failed
miserably in Germany (three times already), in France, in Italy, and in the
Netherlands. I think purely based on the statistics, we can
derive some interesting insights:
- Does Samsung really have a
case here?
- What are they trying to
achieve by filling these SEP infringements?
- Are they abusing SEPs?
- If a SEP related lawsuit
prevails, what would the defendant have to lose?
Using SEP's to slow the competitor or extract licensing fees seems somewhat of a similar tactic to those the NPE's are practicing. Companies with SEP's are taking advantage of the situation because stricter legislation has yet to be provided. How can companies ask for patent reform against patent trolls when they are also exercising that same type of control over others in their own way?
ReplyDeleteI would totally agree with you. I feel this is pretty sad and unfortunate that firms are out there with a main purpose of making profits. It's inevitable that they would try to do everything they can to screw their competitors.
Delete@jsbk2014, I can't agree with you more on the subject.
DeleteThose companies, (Apple, Samsung, and Google etc.) that fight against each other at US market, start to influence Euro market by suggesting stricter legislation barrier against the NPEs.
As if patenting is an exclusive game for companies that hold cash and have a place in the market. Though I would still think good regulations need to be put in place to minimize the impact of the NPEs, we also need to think about ways to eliminate the unnecessary litigations for throttling against market share.
Hi Tian, great choice of topics on your blog, and well written and discussed. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete