

How smartphone industry turned gentlemen's agreement into full-scale patent war - Terretta
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/16/2786970/FRAND-smartphone-industry-apple-motorola-samsung

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ZeroGravitas
Oh dear. Another important policy debate about patents that's going to be
hijacked by supporters of a corporation who have no understanding of the
issues beyond a desire for their team to win.

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ZeroGravitas
I liked this quote, (partly because it's a genuine example of "begging the
question" in the old philosophical sense):

 _"They're presumably asking Apple for the maximum 2.25 percent royalty, and
that's a huge amount, especially considering that standard-essential patents
typically only cover a specific and inexpensive component of the overall
device."_

So the _inexpensive_ component is actually not inexpensive if you count the
cost of the IPR, kind of like a song from iTunes, or a Mac OS X disc, or a
Hollywood blockbuster DVD is inexpensive if you don't take acccount of the
IPR. Unfortunately, without the legal right to use the IPR these inexpensive
things are at best paperweights or a random string of digits, at worst grounds
to be sued for piracy or patent infringement.

