“Apple just gave the rest of the industry 1 billion, 49 million, 353
thousand, 540 reasons why they should not drift too close to Apple’s
patents or designs.” – John Kirk

Well, basically this can get to 3 Billion, 128 million 059 thousand reasons to stay out of Apples patents or designs should Judge Lucy Koh triple the damage due to “willful infringement”.

Personally, though I applaud the verdict of the jury to award such monstrous sum to punish second-rate copy cats who try to steal away years and years of handwork and innovation.

“Patents and trade dress don’t much matter. You may have a legal right
to enforce your patents, but as a practical matter, they are virtually
unenforceable.”- John Kirk on previous article http://techpinions.com/musings-on-apple-v-samsung/8772. I bet you feel kinda different now huh…

I find my self in a bit of a predicament in that I have not, up until this point, criticized your work and therefore do this reluctantly. When I read your original post, I was enthusiastically following along nodding my head up and down in agreement, when toward the end my enthusiasm imploded.

There were two issues and because the second one was based on the future, I decided not to comment at that time.

First Issue: You seem to do a 180 degree swing, which is common for lawyers but not something common for you. (BTW – I am a recovering supplier of time and billing software for lawyers).

You first said:

“Even if Apple loses this case, they’ve made the point that if your product drifts too close to theirs, they can tie you up in court for years and years. And if Apple wins the case, well, they’ve turned that warning shot I mentioned, above, into a 2.5 billion dollar fusillade.”

You then said:

“I see what Apple is trying to accomplish here but, – and this is going to sound strange coming form an attorney – personally, I wish they hadn’t tried to use the courts to solve their patent problems. Seems like an awful lot of trouble for very little return. Feel free to disagree. I’m quite sure that Apple does.”

I chalked this up to the normal CYA tactics used by many, but I find unproductive. It is like most financial analysts who skillfully predict that the market will go up, down or stay the same. While it is of some use to know the various alternatives, it is far more valuable to have an opinion (the name of this web site is tech.pinions) as to the outcome of a situation.

Second Issue: The real implosion to my enthusiasm came when I read this:

“If, in some fantasy world, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, came to me for advice on this matter, I’d tell him this: “Patents and trade dress don’t much matter. You may have a legal right to enforce your patents, but as a practical matter, they are virtually unenforceable.”

First I must say, as an AAPL stockholder, I am eternally grateful that you are not Tim Cook’s attorney, that you couldn’t have been more wrong in your advice and I am puzzled, not only with your view of this whole patent situation, but with others as well.

As I said, I supplied software to the legal community (for over 30 years). My wife and I were lucky to sell the intellectual property in 2000 and did well. Our luck came from working 12+ hours a day every day and I mean every day. My problem with your advice to Tim Cook is that if I had thought that the legal system had such little belief in its ability to enforce the laws, I don’t know if I would have put up such a strong fight in my struggle to obtain some measure of success.

Let me go out on a real limb here and say I think I know how Tim Cook would have responded to your advice. I think he would have pointed out that the employees that were recruited to work on the iPhone were asked to sacrifice weekends and vacations for years in order to bring such a revolutionary device to market. I think he would point out that the families therefore made sacrifices as well. There is no question that Apple could financially afford to take your advice but I don’t think Tim Cook could have used it to explain his actions to those employees who sacrificed so much to make the iPhone a success. IMHO, he had to fight this one and I am so glad he did.

The main reason I am puzzled by those who say patents shouldn’t exist at all or, in your case, don’t matter. If that if true, this country should just shut its doors and go quietly into the night. The main thing this country has going for it is its creativity and innovation. Every Apple product I have ever bought proudly states “Designed by Apple in California”.

This country has already lost a large portion of our manufacturing jobs to overseas companies. It seems like there are many out there want to give them the rest of what we have going for us as well.