Apple and HTC, it's just been reported tonight, have decided to stop fighting. The two companies, according to Reuters, announced "a global patent settlement and 10-year license agreement that includes current and future patents held by the companies." Ideally, this is just the first step and we'll soon see similar announcements from Apple & Samsung and Apple & Motorola. Apple, as I wrote a few months ago, in a column called "Sue Different," is almost as good at filing lawsuits as it is at inventing new products.
Right now, one of the biggest drags on technological innovation is the patent system. Companies spend resources suing each other instead of building things; and uncertainty hangs over every invention. Dream up something new, and you still have to worry that you'll be hit by a patent suit. Since patents in technology are so hard to define—even the people who write them sometimes have no idea what they mean—the whole system becomes confused.
There are lots of players involved in creating this muck, and lots of players who'll need to clean it up. We need to get rid of patent trolls; the US PTO needs some revamping; Congress needs to pass new laws; and the large corporations need to enter into massive cross-licensing agreements. We don't know the details yet, but this deal seems to be a very good first step. Let's hope there's more to come.
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