Google and Samsung signed an agreement to mutually share their patents and technologies. Interestingly, the new agreement covers patents that exist now, as well as those projected to be filed in the next decade.
In Samsung’s war with Apple, the patent-battle spans four continents and litigation carries on daily. At this time, Apple has won a $1 billion dollar judgment in the U.S. However, now that Google is in the picture on Samsung’s side, things can change. According to Bloomberg, Jung Dong Joon, a lawyer specializing in patent-law with SU intellectual property comments, “Since Google is also a big U.S. company and has a broad range of high-profile patents and technologies- that will make Apple more cautious about future litigation. It means Samsung has earned a huge ally in the ongoing legal dispute with Apple.”
For consumers, the patent war has real and tangible outcomes. If Apple is successful in barring Samsung via the license dispute, it is possible that the smartphone market will see domination from one source. On the other hand, in monopolistic conditions, history shows that the consumer has never yet benefitted from having one pipeline or bottleneck for innovation. The entire rhythm of the marketplace has competition for the driver of innovation and strangling that could possibly devastate those dynamics, disrupting the growth and evolution of this specific marketplace.
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