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Patent War: Apple and Samsung are at it again

Apple has filed another lawsuit again against Samsung for patent infringement. And this time, it’s not about squares and rectangles.

Sketch of Apple v. Samsung case by Vicki Ellen Behringer
Sketch of Apple v. Samsung case by Vicki Ellen Behringer

Apple has already won the first round when a jury ruled in favor of the fruit company and ordered Samsung to pay $929 million (which the latter is currently appealing). This time around, Apple is asking for around $2 billion in damages. The five patents in question are: the quick links patent wherein data is detected in a message and converted into a link, background data syncing, universal search on both the device and the internet at the same time, keyboard and text spelling autocorrect, and “slide to unlock.” Samsung claims that all, except “slide to unlock,” are native Android features.

The phones involved in the lawsuit include the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2 Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Tab 2 10.1.

I don’t like that Apple uses these kinds of tactics, but if you look at it in a different angle, you would realize that these patents are a big part of Apple’s phones. And these phones are a big part of Apple’s business. I’m not saying that these patents are valid or that Samsung is infringing them, I’m just merely stating that corporations are obligated to defend their business.

Ultimately though, no matter who wins, I think the only losers here seem to be us, the consumers. Any thoughts on the lawsuit? Who do you think is right? Who do you think will win?

Bryan is a geek at heart and a tech enthusiast by choice. He has a strong background in corporate communications, marketing services, and customer relations having worked in the telecommunications and banking sectors for over two decades. In his spare time, he enjoys watching clips on YouTube and binge watching shows on Netflix.

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