Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we take a look at whether Apple's new smart watch, released today, will revitalize yet another device market, and whether Apple will have a thicket of patents blocking competitors from entering the market easily.
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp41
Apple has been at or near the leading edge on two of the most recent major technological innovations, at least from a commercial standpoint. The iPhone took smartphones to a different level in 2007 when that market was filled with flip phones and Blackberries, which of course led to competitors like Samsung and Google getting in on the mix as well over time.
Then a couple years later in 2010, Apple did it again with the iPad. All of a sudden, tablet computing was the place to be, forcing e-readers, laptop computers, and even eventually smartphones to become more like these tablet devices. Once again, competitors from Microsoft to Samsung later flooded the market as well.
Apple also happens to be one of the most active patent filing companies in the U.S. and abroad. That means just as much as innovating and developing products, Apple fights with competitors in court to try and secure and maintain superior market position. Apple and Samsung, for example, are locked in a years-long worldwide war over various phones and phone-related patents. The tablet patent market is heating up in court as well.
Today, the first generation of Apple Watch arrives. Just like with the iPhone and iPad, the first generation watch is being released to mixed critical review, but wild customer demand. Assuming watches come back into style over the next couple years, there will be plenty of lookalike competitors trying to cut into this market that Apple could expand, if things go well. It's an interesting gambit for a company which kind of made watches obsolete for many people by making smartphones so omnipresent, but then again, we all said the same thing about a tablet because who wants a bigger device that can't even work as a phone?
What's more interesting is to see whether Apple has started putting up enough of a patent thicket to make entering this marketplace hazardous to other companies. Some of the design patents on the bands for the Apple watch began issuing in March and April despite being filed only back in last August, and there's already 4 patents issued on some of those aesthetic designs. Which means competitors will have to be careful with the watch bands they offer with smart watches, let alone what patents cover the watch itself!
One would imagine that many of the important keystone utility patents, which do not publish as applications for 18 months after filing, will only start becoming public knowledge now and in the next year. The patent office is pretty backlogged, so it could take some time for these more important patents to come into allowance and effect. But if the plethora of design patents on watch bands is any indication, Apple is set to protect this innovation just as much as the others they now litigate frequently.
Bottom line - Apple is a leader in innovation and in patent litigation. That does not appear likely to change, even with a new hot idea and no Steve Jobs around anymore.
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Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy
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