Apple vs Samsung - Comparative Essay 1

The Apple versus Samsung case has been on the tongues of and minds of the world. News agencies, lawyers, inventors, computer geeks, consumers and businesses are all gabbing about what this case means. What will be the ramifications after the appeals have finalized, and the dust settles? Will intellectual property be protected? Will innovation continue to stun the world? Will consumers pay the price for this tech war? What are the boundaries of inventions? Not surprisingly, there are at least ten different answers for each of these questions depending on what expert is answering the question. The consensus as to what the future of technology will hold is far from being reached. When these cases world wide have finished throwing money, legal arguments and death looks at one another we may find the truth. This paper will attempt to look at what Intellectual Property is, what the Apple vs. Samsung is about, and what it will mean for not only the United States of America, but also the rest of the world. “The phrase intellectual property refers to the bundle of legal rights that arise from the creative genius of the human mind… IP rights protect one's ownership interest in intangible objects, such as the idea behind an invention, the music score for a Broadway play and the name or logo used to brand a product.” (Peterson 2012) Intellectual Property is not a new idea. It has been around for at lease 1500 hundred years. “One of the first known references to intellectual property protection dates from 500 B.C.E., when chefs in the Greek colony of Sybaris were granted year-long monopolies for creating particular culinary delights… From Roman times to the birth of the Florentine Republic, however, there were many franchises, privileges, and royal favors granted surrounding the rights to intellectual works.” (Moore 2011) As far as scholars can determine, there weren’t any formal institutions protecting intellectual property, only the informal examples outlined

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