Judge Lucy Koh
The big legal ‘heads-up’ between Apple representing the ‘American Dream’ and Samsung representing ‘Asian Tigers’ is a showdown for geeks, blue sky thinkers and money makers the world over.
Basically if Apple win they get to control the smart phone market and probably the Internet to boot. If Samsung win then any new idea for products that become popular are going to be so original that no one will take up the challenge of creating a rival. Well that is the way I see it, others may differ.
Steve Jobs before he died said he would spend every single dime he had on destroying Samsung, why?
Well, in his eyes he created the concept of smart phones and made it marketable. The fact that all the things that make iPhone what it is was already there in the ether does not negate in his mind that he created the concept.
In effect it would be like saying that a car firm created new concepts when it used different innovations to make a car do things like use a carburetter, air bag and adjustable seats, creating a car that is efficient, more safer and comfortable all in one go. OK the analogy I just made may not be the same as is being stated in court but it helps to understand what is Apples argument.
Samsung/Android are basically saying that it may have inspired them to do a similar object but you cannot trademark ideas that was already out there. They will counter sue saying that Apple are trying to destroy their reputation with the lawsuit.
By the way the lawsuit is for $2.5 billion, but, in reality it is more than that. I once wrote a piece on Steve Jobs as a poker player (before he died) and how his thinking and style mirrored that of a quick thinking grinder. With this lawsuit it shows how his mind work. His company will grind this out taking small increments to build a larger picture.
The judge who is going to make a judgement on this case is in effect going to change how design innovation in technology will play out for the next 100 years. Will the ‘taming of the wild west’ by intellectual property rights be cemented by Judge Lucy Koh? Or will it be possible that ‘design’ is just another form of artistic interpretation and therefore cannot be trademark. The answers will be big and far reaching.
As a side issue the court case could be seen as corporate hippies verses corporate machines. Obviously Apple represent the corporate hippies and Samsung the corporate machines. Neither are liberating the individual as they use two different ways to make money. The hippies look to create a happy clappy type of environment which the customer pay premium price to be in with the ‘in crowd’. The machines just look to make money by being cheap and without the fanfare of making your life more spiritual with their product.
So as a tribute to this battle and hearing news that Scot McKenzie – the singer of the hippy anthem ‘San Francisco‘ – has died, here is the video to get you in the mood.
Scott McKenzie – San Francisco
