A Tangled Web Microsoft and Apple Spin

Yeah, hopefully looking at this graphic makes you a little sick to your stomach and shows the reason why we need patent law reform.  When Microsoft reportedly makes more money on licensing Android then either their regular OS or phone OS (depending on who you hear from) and Apple can shut down a company’s tablet production because it sorta ‘looks’ like their product, then something is really wrong.

When you look at these two companies, they both got rich by stealing (I will not even say borrowing) ideas from right under other companies.  Unix, Apple?  How about Xerox?  How about monopolistic behaviors, Microsoft?

So it really frustrates me to see the graphic and see Apple working to stop Samsung just from selling their Galaxy tabs based on looks.  When their chief counsel could not even tell the different between the two.  Or Mr. Jobs going ‘nuclear’ on Android.  Because they copied.  The hypocrisy of it all.

How can we as a society that wants to put an emphasis on creativity and higher level thinking, get there where our multi-national corporations spend millions to persuade judges to give them their monopolies?  Maybe these folks behind the Occupy Wall Street movement have something here.  When will a start up ever compete with an Apple or Microsoft that buys patents left and right?  My only hope remains on Google.  We will see what they can do moving forward.  Microsoft and Apple feel fine to cherrypick smaller companies, but even they won’t touch Google yet.