Stop with the patent lawsuits already!

Recently, the mobile world has been rockin’ over many patent infringement cases, with Apple taking the lead in being the bully. Ok I have to admit, Apple’s suit against Samsung has some grounds because Samsung did obviously copy Apple designs with its Galaxy S line. However, the suit against HTC is really childish, addressing mostly very generic patents on mobile software like being able to select a phone number from a text message. Is it not the downfall of fair market competition when companies try and screw each other over on such generic implementations of mobile technologies? The real problem with the lawsuit between Apple and HTC is that Apple is attacking software implementations of the Android OS and not specifically elements that HTC added with for instance their Sense shell. This means that if Apple wins this case, they have grounds to stop import of all Android phones, and not just phones from HTC.

This can only go in completely the wrong direction, forcing manufacturers to compete with each other based on their patent portfolio in stead of through their product lines. I guess this demonstrates the biggest flaw of the American patent system, allowing companies to request patents on very general technologies or software implementations which are basically found in every mobile OS like copy and paste functions. Why not compete fair, trying to create a better product than your competitors? This will result in a much healthier market situation, giving the consumer the best possible products and more importantly, the choice for themselves which product is best.