As Samsung faces a temporary injunction on U.S. sales of its new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet PC and Apple posted a $2.6 million bond to enforce that injunction, speculation is running high about what each side (and the judge) will do next. GPC's Alexander Poltorak was the IP expert consulted for an article examining Samsung's options in its ongoing patent war with Apple. ("Apple Files Bond In Samsung Patent Case As Expert Sees Samsung Re-work To Defuse Suit" International Business Times - June 28, 2012)
Article excerpt: "We are dealing with two superpowers here," said Alexander Poltorak, CEO of General Patent Corp., a Suffern, N.Y.-based specialist in intellectual property and patents. "It's like the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. used to be in the days of the Cold War."
Rather than settle their patent war in the U.S., as well as Asia and Europe, Poltorak predicted, Samsung will probably direct its engineers now to redesign the Galaxy Tab so that Apple won't be able to say its designs were infringed.
"They won't have to change the electronics inside, just change the outer appearance of the product," said Poltorak, whose company doesn't work with either side.
Samsung can afford to do the rework, and Apple, with cash and investments exceeding $110 billion at the end of its last quarter, can sue Samsung forever, Poltorak said.
...Apple for years had argued that Samsung, while a major supplier, had obtained knowledge of its plans for tablets as well as the iPhone and had copied the "look and feel" of its best-selling products. The company filed more than 30 lawsuits in the U.S., Asia and Europe, as well as before the U.S. International Trade Commission and the European Commission.
General Patent's Poltorak said those other lawsuits are just "proxy wars" for Apple's real target: the Android OS developed by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine. This week, Google announced the latest upgrade for Andoid, dubbed Jelly Bean, and the company announced its new Nexus 7 tablet for sale next month against the iPad.
Both sides in that battle are fully armed, Poltorak claimed, especially now that Google has beefed up its intellectual property, buying more than 1,100 patents from International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and then acquiring Motorola Mobility Holdings, with another 17,500 patents.