Samsung Plans To Block the iPhone 5 In Korea 178
c0lo writes "In apparent retaliation to its U.S. rival's continual patent challenges in global markets, Samsung Electronics is seeking a complete ban on the sales of the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 in Korea. This is one of Samsung's several recently-opened fronts in the patent world wars: Apple was sued in France on 3 technical patents and counter-sued in Australia over 7 technical patents (after an Apple 'offensive' temporarily blocked Galaxy Tab for the Australian market)."
Landlines coming (Score:5, Insightful)
Soon all cell phones will be banned because of their dangerous IP infringement, and the landline will return as the obviously superior technology
How to innovate in a Mexican patent standoff? (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I remember as a kid learning about the great inventions and inventors and thinking how cool it would be to come up with the next great idea. Now when I think about coming up with the next great idea, all I can picture is how I would even *begin* to deal with all the patent lawsuits that would inevitably follow.
Maybe there is someone out there who has the grain of insight in his mind that could lead to a radical advance in propulsion that could make a manned mission to Mars practical. But if the first thing that some venture capitalist tells him is "We'd love to fund this, but there is no way we can afford to defend you in the onslaught of patent lawsuits" how is it ever going to materialize? Patent trolls and patent collectors make it harder and harder for anything that isn't mainstream and almost immediately marketable from ever making it past the concept phase.
Apple should be worried (Score:2, Insightful)
I bought a Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100. It is superior to the iPhone in any way I could measure. Android Gingerbread is smooth and seamless and has fixed the "chunkyness" of Froyo.
I can see why Apple has gone to the darkside of law suits.
Capitalism is becoming a judged sport (Score:5, Insightful)
The world economy is increasingly based on intellectual property, which is not governed by the physical laws of production capacity and unit cost. Instead intellectual property is government by subjective judgements about who deserves how much of the credit. These judgements are formalized in patent and copyright law, but they still come down to interpretation and value judgement. There is no firm ground to stand on.
Don't hate the player, hate the game (Score:4, Insightful)
The seed of patent reform with any luck... (Score:2, Insightful)
Hopefully, with the current thermonuclear melt down going on between the "big boys" over all those bogus patents, the people holding those patents will come to realize that bogus patents cause more trouble than they are worth (literally). Maybe then the big boys will get on the bandwagon to eliminate bogus patents from the system.
By "bogus" I mean patents that are trying to claim that "one click checkout" is a novel, cutting edge technology (or using gestures to unlock a smart phone, or the colors used for an icon, or any of that trivial nonsense that have achieved the status of an 'novel invention' with the patent office).
Of course, in the meantime, the lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank, which is always the problem because now we want to change a legal concept which serves the needs of the owners of the legal system.
Re:How to innovate in a Mexican patent standoff? (Score:4, Insightful)
If I only got my news from Slashdot every day, I'd probably have an alarmist worldview too, yet in spite of your dire hypotheticals, the world's technology is totally amazing right now and better than ever.
Slashdot posts so many patent stories because it generates pageviews. Always gotta have something for people to raise their fists over.