By : ADAM HAIGH
Source : http://www.castleink.com
Category : Patent News
New York, NY -- According to an article in Macworld, Steve Wozniak, one of the two co-founders of Apple, is concerned about the number of patents which are owned by large companies, says The Recycler. Wozniak points to companies such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo!, which were all started from scratch by people with big and new ideas. With patents at a premium, the larger companies are at an advantage because they collect as many as possible.
An example of this type of issue affected Wozniak early on in his career with Apple over the design of the Apple II. The patent for the design of the system was at the time owned by RCA, and Wozniak had to pay to use the technology, even though RCA was not actively using it at the time.
Despite his concerns, he still is supportive of the patent owning model for Apple. This is because they are taking their own technology, and creating new and visionary products out of it. HP, on the other hand says Wozniak is in a tougher situation because despite the products they make, the operating system they run on was not created by HP. Apple has their iOS, HP does not.
As anyone who follows the printer and ink industry knows, patents are a huge issue for there, too. Non-OEMs, especially the legitimate ones, have to work very hard to make sure that the don’t infringe on the myriad.of patents owned by the OEMs. One interesting case concerning the acquisition of patents in printing can be found in looking at Memjet. They own well over 3,000 patents, and have at least 2,000 more pending approval. However they are not building their own printers with their ultra-fast printhead; instead they are licensing the technology to other companies and allowing them to have Memjet-powered printers.
Source : http://www.castleink.com/_a-steve-wozniak-expresses-concern-for-startups-495.html
