Readers of the IP Advice pages in New Electronics will be familiar with how patents protect a company’s technology. By patenting innovations, companies can either make sure a competitor is unable to use that approach or license its technology to other companies, providing what could be a lucrative revenue stream.
The Apple case highlights quite what a minefield all companies navigate through when developing new technology. One of the questions that everyone developing new technology must ask themselves is ‘has anyone done this before?’.
If you’re looking to patent a particular development, then the answer to that question should be provided by patent specialists, who trawl the various databases looking for examples of how other companies have developed technology. Only if they are happy that you’re exploring new ground will they apply for a patent on your behalf.
But what if you’re simply designing a product? How do you know what elements of your approach have been protected by another company?
In the 1980s, it was ‘par for the course’ for electronics companies to sue each other for patent infringement. Intel, for example, regularly banged heads with AMD over the finer points of processor design, while the EDA companies of the day pursued each other enthusiastically; many lawyers prospered.
Today, there appear to be fewer law suits, although you might expect to see more as technology becomes more complex. Perhaps the extensive computing resources available to patent attorneys make it easier to trawl through previous patents to find – and avoid – possible clashes.
If Apple has to fork out the $860m asked for by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, it won’t make much of a dent in its bank account; the company has more than $200billion in cash. But the financial impact on a smaller company could be fatal.
