You might think that Apple going after HTC over 20 patents was what it was all about, but when you look at the bigger picture you can see that everybody seems like they are after everybody for various legal reasons.
The chart above (and larger below) shows who is after who at the moment with Cisco attacking Apple, Apple attacking HTC, ELAN, Nokia and Kodak going for Apple and a whole lot in between.
According to the NY Times, these sorts of patent disputes are not uncommon although a few larger cases we have heard of recently have shed a little more interest from the media in to what’s going on.
It’s impossible as it stands now to come up with any judgement and because of that business will be as usual in terms of phones being launched and pricing etc… but in a few years time when these cases come to a close (at which point there will be a bunch of other patent disputes going on) it is unclear who will lose out. Perhaps the consumer will need to pay more for a phone, maybe a company will have to pay licensing fee’s to another to use a service or maybe even there will be less competition.
What ever happens things will move on and new products will be launched and greedy companies will fight for their patents (fairly or unfairly) and the whole cycle will carry on as it has for a few years. It’s still interesting to see what’s what though and who is suing who. Larger image below.
Via: Giz
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