Patent war: Apple vs Samsung

It's getting increasingly difficult for the current set of rules and regulations regarding patents and copyrights to keep pace with technological advancements. The number of lawsuits for violation of patent rights for designs, interfaces, builds and the likes have seen a surge in recent times. The recent mobile device patent war between Apple and Samsung has re-ignited the whole debate on intellectual property laws. Apple has filed a legal suit against Samsung for $2.5 billion, accusing the South Korean gadget giant of making "a deliberate decision to copy" the iPhone and iPad, thus violating technology patents.

Although this is a full-blown case now, the seed of this battle was sowed way back in April 2011 when Apple initiated proceedings in the US by filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung. Within a week of Apple's initial lawsuit, Samsung filed a countersuit in Germany, Japan and South Korea. By August 2011 they were fighting their legal battles – a total of 19 lawsuits – in 12 courts in nine countries on four continents.

However, by October 2011, the dispute further reached 10 countries, and by July 2012 the two companies were entangled in more than 50 lawsuits across the globe worth billions of dollars. Consequently, a German court advocated Europe-wide injunction on Samsung's 7.7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet while it allowed German sales of the redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1N. On the same lines, the US Appeals Court lifted the sales ban for the Galaxy Nexus smartphone on July 30, 2012.

The case of Apple and Samsung might be the biggest one in the history of patent disputes but is certainly not an uncommon phenomenon. NTP had filed a patent violation lawsuit against Research in Motion (RIM) in 2000 and the dispute had been settled 2006. Under the terms of the settlement, RIM paid a massive $ 612.5 million to NTP in a "full and final settlement of all claims".

Moreover, the patent disputes between Google and Oracle, Microsoft and Motorola and Facebook and Yahoo are the cases in point. As per media sources, the number of patent, copyright and registered-design cases filed in the courts increased by nearly 182 per cent last year, with 183 claims made in 2011 compared to just 65 in 2010.

The verdict is yet pending in the case of Apple and Samsung. But their partnership is all set to go for a toss in the near future. In February this year, Apple closed a $7 billion deal with Samsung to buy flash memory packs in bulk to fuel its iPhone and iPad products and is looking for a new vendor for its new series of iPads. This verdict would not only affect them but also would set new rules for the game, worldwide.