1.) Apple won, because they established the validity of their patents and that Samsung was guilty of willful infringement of many of them.
2.) Samsung won, because the damages aren't so severe to have made their strategy of ape'ing the iPhone a bad decision, and now they get to be mentioned in the same conversations as the iPhone.
3.) "Companies that innovate" won, because the jury has reaffirmed the patent system to protect companies from being ripped off.
4.) "The technology industry" won, because now mobile phone manufacturers will be forced to differentiate their products, hopefully leading to better designs.
5.) Apple lost, because in spite of the ruling, they've pissed off the nerd community by behaving like the 500-pound gorilla that they've become, instead of the scrappy underdog people want to root for.
6.) Samsung lost, because they have to pay out a pretty sizable amount of money, and are now going to be referred to as "that company who copied the iPhone".
7.) Google lost, because this will cause problems for other Android manufacturers, and many consider this case to be a proxy war between Apple and Google.
8.) The industry in general lost, because patents are fundamentally icky, and this case reaffirms the strong-arm strategy that companies (Apple in particular) have been refining to artificially hamstring their competition.
9.) The justice system lost, because mere mortals aren't possibly intelligent enough to understand a patent lawsuit, because if they were, obviously they wouldn't think patents could ever be valid.
10.) Lawyers won, because everyone involved got a massive payday, and there'll be a lengthy appeals process.
Did I miss anyone?
Thanks media, your insightful commentary on this complicated issue has been super valuable!
When an industry expands rapidly, any company that enters and does a decent job will be an absolute winner. But, there will always be relative winners and losers over both the short and long term.
That's actually why all of these articles aggravate me so much, because, I agree, all of these things are true (which sort of points out how silly the idea of a singular entity "winning" or "losing" is).
11.) Governments who sell IPR won because more and more everyone thinks the path to success in IT must go through IP registration (of junk software patents in bulk) and (kangaroo court) IP litigation; moreover they can periodically raise fees without much pushback. Their main customers have loads of cash.
So, based on the trial outcome:
1.) Apple won, because they established the validity of their patents and that Samsung was guilty of willful infringement of many of them.
2.) Samsung won, because the damages aren't so severe to have made their strategy of ape'ing the iPhone a bad decision, and now they get to be mentioned in the same conversations as the iPhone.
3.) "Companies that innovate" won, because the jury has reaffirmed the patent system to protect companies from being ripped off.
4.) "The technology industry" won, because now mobile phone manufacturers will be forced to differentiate their products, hopefully leading to better designs.
5.) Apple lost, because in spite of the ruling, they've pissed off the nerd community by behaving like the 500-pound gorilla that they've become, instead of the scrappy underdog people want to root for.
6.) Samsung lost, because they have to pay out a pretty sizable amount of money, and are now going to be referred to as "that company who copied the iPhone".
7.) Google lost, because this will cause problems for other Android manufacturers, and many consider this case to be a proxy war between Apple and Google.
8.) The industry in general lost, because patents are fundamentally icky, and this case reaffirms the strong-arm strategy that companies (Apple in particular) have been refining to artificially hamstring their competition.
9.) The justice system lost, because mere mortals aren't possibly intelligent enough to understand a patent lawsuit, because if they were, obviously they wouldn't think patents could ever be valid.
10.) Lawyers won, because everyone involved got a massive payday, and there'll be a lengthy appeals process.
Did I miss anyone?
Thanks media, your insightful commentary on this complicated issue has been super valuable!