With the Nortel patent sale and escalations in the Samsung/Apple patent litigation occurring in the same week, intellectual property is making big news. But it's not necessarily the technology itself that's getting the attention, as Alexander Poltorak observed in a recent article on TheStreet.com ("Patent Paranoia Hitting New Highs", July 1, 2011).
Article excerpt:
Alexander Poltorak, CEO of IP firm General Patent Corp., believes that the patent paranoia is driven largely by market forces. "I don't think that it's the technology driving the patent feeding frenzy," he told TheStreet. "It's jostling for position in the marketplace that drives the patent world."
Poltorak points to smartphone arena, where market share has shifted rapidly thanks to the rise of Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices. "This shift in tectonic plates is forcing companies to see if they can bolster their revenue by extracting some revenue from their rivals," he said, pointing to Nokia's recent patent settlement with Apple. "Nokia lost market share to Apple, [but] they tried to gain some advantage by asserting their patent portfolio against Apple."
Read full article on TheStreet.com.