The case is far from over. Samsung will appeal and this particular legal battle will go on for possibly years before there is a final resolution. The industry will have probably moved on by then.
But not soon enough. Companies are still copying Apple’s features, and they’re going to find new ways of copying them as well.
Smartphones made by companies like HTC and Nokia take cues from Apple, and they’ll continue to do so through technical changes, even if they cost a lot of money. These companies are not going to drop these features just after one legal challenge.
Eventually a company will challenge the market with its own features and cause Apple to start moving again. But until then, the rest of the competition will use Apple’s ideas and will probably get away with it – consumers don’t largely care who’s suing each other as long as the products are good.
But that having been said…
There’s an argument here that consumers will be the ones to suffer all the blows. As Engadget’s Darren Murph points out, with so much litigation flying around companies are hesitant to try anything new.
That also means they aren’t trying new things and developing new products.
“The reality is that Android has made iOS better, and iOS has made Android better. The competition has led to stronger offerings on both sides for consumers of all ages, and if you want my honest opinion, Apple succeeded in derailing Samsung long before this trial ended.”
Because Apple is so keen on legal action, some say it’s hurting the market. Of course, that all depends on how further litigation continues.
This isn’t the end of patent litigation in Silicon Valley – not by a long shot. Apart from the fact Samsung said it would appeal, (at least according to The Wall Street Journal), there are still plenty of patent accusations on the fly.
For example, just earlier this month Google filed a new lawsuit against Apple. That was just a few days before it was found Apple didn’t infringe two patents owned by Google’s Motorola Mobility division.
Facebook and Yahoo managed to settle their differences last month. But as Telsyte research director Foad Fadaghi says, the tech scene remains “a highly litigious environment”.
“It’s likely there will be more litigation between different parties in the next couple of years.”
Samsung certainly thinks so.
“This isn’t the final word in this case or in battles being waged in courts and tribunals around the world,” it said last week.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
