What the Apple Patent Infringement Case Means to You

Apple, with its cadre of lawyers, has defeated Samsung’s cadre of lawyers in a massive patent infringement law suit.  What does that mean to you?

Well, the victory opens up a sales injunction avenue to Apple.  This means Apple with have the courts order Samsung to stop selling products that violate their patents.  The injunction will probably include all of Samsung’s smartphones: Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.  On the software front, many companies have already started to move away from the pinch-to-zoom feature and many other multitouch features, least they incur Apple’s wrath.

Although the lawsuit gives Apple a billion dollars in damages, they may not have achieved their ultimate goal of weakening the Android operating system.  Because Android is essentially open source, it greatly reduces the cost of working with it, drawing in developers.  If Apple keeps up the pressure, Google may be forced to close off and license its operating system.  That might stifle app creation.

All-in-all, your favorite smartphone might not be around next year.  What’s even more interesting is that the courts in Japan struck down Apple’s lawsuit. Samsung still has a chance to appeal.  It’ll all come down to if they can win.