Graphic patent companies litigation

The icon above shows a series of patent lawsuits launched by technology companies around mobile devices. Although a few of these cases have been settled, most companies still have complaints about the book (Tencent Technology)

Tencent Technology News (compilation / Beckham) Beijing time March 4, according to foreign media reports, "The New York Times" today published Nick Bilton (Nick Bilton) blog post, saying that in recent years, a large number of patents have appeared in the scientific and technological community Litigation, and the nature of patent litigation is different from the past. In many lawsuits, the plaintiff did not intend to use the patented technology, but just wanted to borrow a patent to obtain a lot of money.

The following is Nick Billton's article:

We seem to have entered a feast of "Super Bowl events" of patent prosecution. With the exception of Microsoft, Palm and Google, almost all major mobile phone companies are involved in mutual patent litigation on mobile technology.

According to the chart in the article, so many patent litigations are almost dazzling. For example, last year alone, Apple was sued by multiple companies. Taiwan Elan Electronics sued Apple for infringing its patented touch screen technology, and Nokia also sued Apple, Samsung, LG and other mobile phone manufacturers. Kodak filed a lawsuit against several companies, alleging that these companies violated its digital imaging technology. Of course, it also includes the recent sensational Apple sued HTC.

Although patent litigation is not uncommon in the technology world, these litigations are mainly concentrated in the field of mobile phones, indicating that the mobile phone market is undergoing dramatic changes. Some lawyers said that mobile phone technology is still in the embryonic stage of development, and these large technology companies hope to try their best to win patent litigation and lay a solid foundation for future market competition.

On Tuesday, when I talked with Eric Von Hippel, a professor of technology innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Hipper pointed out that because some companies use patents for trading, the recent patent litigation seems quite inappropriate.

Professor Hipper explained that in the past, if a company was involved in a patent litigation case, “usually they would eventually reach an agreement to share the patent with each other.” In many patent litigation cases now, the plaintiff is usually some “patent phishing” ", They do not intend to use these patented technologies, but want to use patent litigation to obtain a lot of money.