In the past 10 years there has been a massive boost for the need of Patent and Intellectual Property lawyers. Why? Because of the rapid development in the field of mobile technology. Any reader of technology news sites such as Engadget, Gizmodo, or TechnoBuffalo know how much of a hassle the new "Patent Wars" are becoming. You can't go a day without reading about one company suing another for patent infringements, whether something as obscure and public as "slide to unlock" to mundane as the name "AppStore". The use of patents here however isn't to protect ones rights or ideas. No it's far from that.
You can say a brief history for the use of patents in the attempt to monopolize mobile technology started with the advent of the iPhone. When the original iPhone (OG iPhone) was first released, it really was YEARS ahead of it's competitors. It had a sleek design, an amazing web browser, and it was a dedicated personal music player (PMP). This was a whole year before there was any news about "Apps"; any aficionado of mobile technology can tell you that Apple did not have the "AppStore" until version 2.0, which came out the summer of 2008 (OG iPhone was released June of 07). In point, it was THE device to have. And believe me, for a whole year this device monopolized the smart phone market. Windows Mobile started seeing a decrease in revenue as more and more people started looking towards the iPhone. When the iPhone 3G came out, and the price dropped significantly for it's subsidized price ($99 on contract), Windows Mobile diminished even more. However something else came out that lit the fuse that started the desire for Apple to maintain its hegemony over the mobile market.
In October of 2008 the HTC Dream (G1 in N.A) was released. It wasn't using Windows Mobile, the common smartphone operating system at the time, nor was it using Symbian which was the "opera web browser" of mobile operating systems. No, the Dream used an operating system developed by Search Giant Google. At the time, Google had just finished phasing out Gmail to the general public, and was pretty much known only at this point for being the most used search engine in the world. Google basically came out of nowhere, in a market that was rapidly becoming dominated by Apple and their iPhone brand, and introduced a new player. All thoughts aside, the Dream was a shitty device. It was huge, the keys faulted, and was introduced to a market that was expecting Apps galore. At this point iOS' AppStore had already 100,000 apps available in the market, whereas the new Google Marketplace had about 20 starting out. Big mistake in Google's part. But this didn't stop Google.
You see, Apple monopolized the market in one way. Every year they would release an iPhone, with great features. But it was always lacking in something, something mundane that it should have already had, or something that other phones had but it didn't. That way when they released the new phone next year, with those features, they would attract new customers to it and also force existing users to update. Ingenious I know. Google could not hope to do the same. See Android was the underdog. They couldn't expect to launch a device lacking in features, to do so would be suicide in the mobile market. Instead what they did was release Android as an open source system. What does this mean? Well unlike Apple, which restricts iOS to run only on Apple manufactured phones, Android could be made to run on anything. Manufacturers hoping to tackle Apple began a lengthy process of advertisements and developments to develop their own Android powered "iPhone Killers". The most prominent at this point being Motorola, who plunged millions of dollars in advertisements backing Big Red (Verizon) to market the "Droid" series of phones. And to be honest, Motorola was immensely successful in their marketing attempts. On a side note, if you ask people what kind of Android phone they have, unless they really know the different kinds of phones, they will say a "Droid", whether its a galaxy S phone or an LG. Back on topic, Motorola single handedly brought Android to the public's eye. At this point everyone was making an Android phone. HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, just to name a few, are some of the prominent makers of Android powered devices.
To tackle Apple's control with their singular devices, Google enlisted an army, an army of manufactures producing phones in mass. Slowly to this point, Android has been overtaking market control and sales over Apple's devices. Apple was scared now. They knew that unless they did something, the rapidly developing under-dog would take over and leave Apple in it's dust. Apples answer to the ever-growing Android? Patents. Loads and loads of mundane patents. Although they knew the couldn't completely cripple Androids development, and knowing they can't target Google (that would be similar to Nazi Germany invading Soviet Russia during the Winter) they attempt to halt their enemies productions. To a degree it was successful for Apple. They managed to block manufacturers from producing, not in mass, but with enough time to continue spewing out iOS updates to match the competition. Does this make sense? They momentarily continue to stop manufacturers to make their own devices better, using inane lawsuits regarding "Slide to Unlock" and "iPhone 3G design" (we're in the dawn of the iPhone 5 and this is still being brought up?).
The general public has now become aware of the "Patent War" between Apple and say, the world, but now you have third party companies who just buy patents for a living (lodsys) who target manufacturers for the hell of it! I thought patents were used to defend ones ideas and promote development? To spur new ideas into the market, whilst protecting the owners ideas and allowing them to fiscally benefit. Not in these cases. Here patents are used by jealous and greedy businessmen who want to monopolize mobile technology and mobile markets.
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