The Apple Ban and Veto

In June 2013, the International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Samsung in a patent lawsuit aimed at Apple. According to the ITC, Apple was in breach of a number of patents and the commission had decided to ban the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 3G from the United States. After two months of deliberation, President Obama issued a veto on the ban. It was the "first time an administration has vetoed an ITC product ban ruling since the Reagan administration issued a veto in 1987." The administration's statement argued that the ITC's ruling was anticompetitive and anti-innovative. The very nature of patents are anticompetitive and anti-innovative so the ITC's ruling should come as no surprise.

I wonder if the ban would have been vetoed if Apple was not so iconic, or if it was some less popular, influential or more generic company being sued.

Google's Defensive Acquisition of Patents

In early 2011, the Guardian's Florian Mueller argued that Google's patent portfolio of 576 may have been much too weak compared to Microsoft's patent stockpile of 3,094 at the time. Since then, Google has focused on buying up patent sources, including the controversial purchase of Motorola (on its fifth straight quarter of losses) for $12.5 billion. Google recently sold Motorola for $2.9 billion, keeping 17,000 of Motorola's patents which are valued at around $5 billion. In 2007, Google had only 38 patents but today it owns more than 51,000. This exponential growth in the ownership of patents by a company that largely believes that patents are "bogus, largely low-quality, and used in court by companies that can't innovate to hurt consumers and stifle true innovators" shows the how hostile the smartphone market has become. It is now a worthwhile investment for Google, though it appears to contradict the company's culture of openness, to spend absurd amounts of money for pieces of paper. The patents they own provide a strong litigation deterrent: the threat of a countersuit, which protects Android's legal position in the market. Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt has responded to the state of the market saying, "We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations. I'm not too worried about this." One could argue that he is not worried due in large part to the massive number of patents they have acquired.

Why I'm Taking This Course

I'm interested in Patent Engineering because in the Age of Information, where ideas are shared at an increasing rate, the ability to understand how ownership of an idea is determined is extremely valuable. The intersection of technology and law is intriguing to me, with intellectual property and patents at the very center. I believe we are on the cusp of witnessing a revolution in how patents and intellectual property are determined in order to encourage innovation. If I have a strong practical understanding of patents and intellectual property when that does occur, I will be able to form actual opinions on the matter and share it with others.

About Me

My name is Tyler Wade. I am a fourth year CS/Applied Math double major. I am interested in how technology and society interact, specifically regarding how advances in artificial intelligence and automation will change the nature of work, as well as how policy should respond to it. I am also inspired by the idea of the triple bottom line: doing business not only for shareholder profit but also for societal and environmental good. I believe this idea in business has the potential to have a major positive impact on the world unlike any other.