Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos has expressed his concern in the continuous amount of patent lawsuits in the mobile industry coming into fruition.
Bezos stressed that he's worried that the sheer amount of patent lawsuits "might start to stifle innovation", and suggested that governments should get involved in order to protect consumers.
"Governments may need to look at the patent system and see if those laws need to be modified because I don't think some of these battles are healthy for society," Bezos said in an interview with Metro.
Amazon itself experienced a lawsuit from Smartphone Technologies for purportedly violating patents in its Kindle Fire tablet. However, aside from that, it has stayed clear of lawsuits, while firms such as Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and Motorola all battle against each other through its batch of patent disputes.
"One thing that we are very seriously taking a look at is the question of software patents, and whether in fact the patent system as it currently exists is the right system to incent innovation and really promote consumer-friendly policies," Google's Pablo Chavez said. He also told attendees at a Technology Policy Institute conference that "patent wars are not helpful to consumers".
Last year, the smartphone industry alone spent $20 billion on patents, with spending by both Apple and Google on patents exceeded its spending on research and development of new products, representing the first time that has occurred in both company's history.
Google in particular spent $12.5 billion on Motorola Mobility last year in order to acquire its patents so it could further protect its Android platform.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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aoneone Why bother? Any investigation regarding patent violations just results in more backlogging and more years of headache and confusion. This system was never good in the first place and now it is just a pathetic mess.Reply
How much more of a headache you say? Well a formal investigation requires 5 years for both parties to respond, additional 3 years for Law improvement, and another 2 years for underwriting, and up to 10 years for adjustments/upkeeps / and effective results.
Is it worth it? No. Thank you~ ^_^ -
ivanto sounds too good to be true for tech giants to stop suing each other. What would law and troll firms do?Reply -
It's totally out of control. Patent protection should never have been extended to software in the first place. The vast majority of software patents are for incandescently obvious things, but the clueless dufuses in our federal judiciary are too dense to understand that.Reply
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EDVINASM Courts don't do justice - courts do law. Every rule has its own twists. While patenting is trying to protect real innovators from copycats it is also in a way covering patent trolls and allowing them to to do justice. Its just like rights - too little hurts people, too many makes the whole system look like everybody is on drugs. Be careful what you wish :-)Reply -
ddpruitt I'm amazed that a CEO has come out against this, I guess it would have to be Amazon. At least they spend money on innovation not litigation.Reply -
svdb Unfortunately, patent trolls understood before anyone else that it was pointless to actually make products. When Apple or Google spend more on lawyers than on R&D it leads to think that they're slowly but surely going the same way...Reply -
matt_b ivantosounds too good to be true for tech giants to stop suing each other. What would law and troll firms do?Place a lot of people out of a job..........Reply
The patent industry has spawned its' own job sector - it's that profitable, The consumer picks up that tab in the end anyway.