Given the recent inauguration of our 45th president, I have found myself wondering about the incoming administration and how it will fare given the multitude of issues it must face. While large swaths of the population believe that President Trump will make good on his many campaign promises, many Americans harbor questions about the policies […]
If your company has expended valuable capital in obtaining patents involving computer technology, then by now you likely familiar with the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision in Alice v. CLS Bank in 2014 and how it has devastated software patent portfolios in the U.S. You see, under Section 101 of the Patent Act. “whoever invents […]
I have seen a good share of patent litigation in my tenure as an attorney, but the proliferation of smartphones and tablets over the past few years has fueled a flurry of such litigation that seems unprecedented in scope and reach. For the uninitiated, one of these disputes can best be described as a global intellectual property “mobilenuclear” war between titans.
Much apologies to Mr. Lucas on the play on words in the title (I am a big Star Wars fan), but it is apropo to the saga unfolding regarding the Android platform for mobile devices, and a microcosm of the larger patent battles being waged for turf in the mobile platform market. As first reported here, here, and now here, this market seems to have taken off since Apple’s introduction of the iPhone and now the iPad. Nothing like the competition to get the creative juices flowing in the mobile platform market…and the inevitable legal actions sometimes deemed necessary to wield intellectual property rights to protect market space (or otherwise grab a greater piece of it). In fact, its seems some of these smartphone providers (and perhaps Java as an “open” source platform) are destined to be “smarting” after all is said and done…something that may not seem…well…very smart (or open) at all. For some, however, such patent litigation is an absolute necessity for strategic survival in the mobile platform marketplace.