Jury Awards $1 Billion to Apple in Samsung Patent Case - NYTimes.com
If you use both a Mac and a Windows computer, one of the aggravations associated with switching back and forth is that keyboard shortcuts that are "command + [key]" on the Mac -- with the Mac "command" key being in the same place as a Windows "Alt" key -- are "control + [key]" in Windows.
This is a result of Microsoft altering the Mac interface slightly when it otherwise copied it outright to create Windows, and Apple having failed to win a knockout blow in its legal case on the "look and feel" issue back in the '90s. Apple and Mac was rapidly outdistanced in desktop and laptop computer market share by Microsoft and Windows.
No such failed legal defense here.
Apple learned from the Windows experience and wrapped its iPhone and iPad designs and interfaces in multiple patents, which it then applied its full corporate muscle to protecting, thereby leading to this legal victory. If sustained on appeal -- never a sure thing -- the impact of this for Apple is huge. It's leading edge product innovations will remain its intellectual property and the competition will have to do more than just copy them. Or will have to pay a steep price.
What the jury said here is that in an innovation economy, you need to innovate. Not copy.
