Just last year Apple had announced that all their iPhones would now come with a voice-activated software by the name of ‘Siri’. And of course, we as consumers did think that the great Apple was the first too come up with this genius new aspect too their product. But in actual fact the idea came from Michael Phillips, a co-founder of a voice recognition company which was established back in 2006. Much before the release of the iPhone 4. Their very own software was integrated into Apple’s very own Siri much before it was absorbed into the iPhone.
But, just in 2008 Michael Phillip’s company had been contacted by a larger voice recognition firm called Nuance. They threatened to sue his company (Vlingo) if Phillips did not agree to sell his company to them. Not giving into Nuance’s ultimatum Michael now had to face the first of six lawsuits. And so now the money that was too go to higher development of their software with expensive research, that money is now to go to pay for lawyers and court fees. And although Phillip’s did win this case the suit had cost him around $3 million dollars and the financially, the damage was done.
MichaelPhillips had complainedthat they were on the verge of changing the world with the new research they intended to do but because of the money spent on lawsuits that is no longer the case. The question becomes this, “has the marketplace for new ideas been corrupted by software patents used as destructive weapons?”. And the answer I believe for the most part. According to a Stanford University analysis, there has been over $20 billion dollars spent on patent ligation which is the equivalent to about eight Mars rover missions.
But from a business stand point most owners do believe patents are important or else they wouldn’t think of paying the big bucks for research if they knew that it was just going to be copied in a couple of years. Unfortunately it is getting a little out of hand with companies creating patents so broad that they allow the holders to claim ownership of unrelated products built by others. In which most companies are sued for patents they weren’t even aware existed, it is plain to see most companies are not very sure on where to draw the line when it comes to this issue.
On the contrary, that is just how businesses keep their edge, with new technology they offer to consumers that cannot be offered anywhere else. Thus, the concept of a patent is important but, unlike most businesses, people tend to not be aware of the unnecessary bounds some of these patents reach. Every company needs some sort of close competitor or else their incentive to create a better product than the other will no longer be existing.