The infograph reveals Apple at the top of the suing and being sued companies, being sued by Motorola,HTC and Samsung and suing them in return. The chart also shows Microsoft licensing its patents to HTC and Amazon, yet suing Motorola.
These patent lawsuits extend over long periods of time and could be confusing sometimes. If a company for instance aspires to innovate in this space, it could be quite puzzled by the high probability of getting sued in violation of a 10-year old patent that they had no prior knowledge of.
With the patent system operating in this way, start-up businesses will go through unnecessary trouble in shipping having to pay for license agreements and filed lawsuits.
Filing patent lawsuits is a common practice in the mobile industry with other methods to immobilize rivals being scarce. Even if patent owners are not severely harmed by those who used them.Still, they hold the belief that a well-settled lawsuit can carnage business competitors and create a case of monopoly.
An attempt to solve this patent hassle is under discussion trying to ensure that ideas are well-protected, yet constitute no hindrance to the blossoming of new innovations and new market competitors .Until then, the pre-set patent system is here to stay.
