Forbes on "the clear blue line"

Within the Forbes article titled Why Apple Is Fighting The Patent Battle So Hard; What Other Protection From The Competition Does It Have?



And no supplier ever would like to be selling in such a perfectly competitive market, having to use price and price alone as the come on. So, Apple, just like every other producer of anything ever, is desperately trying to find some method of making sure that there’s a clear blue line between what it can offer to the market and what others can. Branding is important, yes, but branding won’t deliver the majority of the market, only that high end (and gorgeously profitable) niche. And despite the fact that Apple is fighting so hard to use those patents as a method of producing that line, sadly for the company it’s not working all that well. As things are turning out there’s very little that cannot simply be worked around to provide the same functionality.



And, when the patents work well, the next thing one has is a patent pool. Recall the outcome of the Wright/Curtiss wars.


link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2014/05/11/why-apple-is-fighting-the-patent-battle-so-hard-what-other-protection-from-the-competition-does-it-have/