Peace at Last : Apple-Google War is Done for Good

Seems like every techie journalists staple source of conflict beat is about to get over. On Friday, Google and Apple decided to call it quits on the incessant exercise of suing and counter suing each other. They have asked the courts to dismiss the remaining patent lawsuits and have decided to settle the matters outside the courts.

The conflict between the two Silicon Valley giants started in 2010. Steve Jobs’ disdain for Google became evident when he commented on the fact that Google had ripped off the iPhone. In a strong statement, he swore he was going to spend his last dying breath trying to destroy Android since he believed it to be stolen. Words which didn’t suit his stature.

The company has now made a sensible decision of discontinuing needless pursuit. After all Android is at the top of the charts with 52.5% of the smartphone operating system market. The Android and the iOS have evolved into completely different systems now.

This gives no indication that the companies are going for a license sharing agreement. They will though use the money they were spending on expensive lawyers on real innovation in the market. A fact that satisfies everyone. The battle will now be on real free market capitalism principles. This advancement also doesn’t put an end to the Apple-Samsung wars which was widely viewed as the Apple’s proxy war on the Android system. Apple had won a compensation of $930 million against Samsung in 2012.

Motorola Mobility was also waging a patent war with Apple. Google bought Motorola Mobility to access Motorola’s patent library thereby protecting other Android Vendors. With the acquisition Apple and Google directly came face to face. Google later sold the Smartphone businesses of Motorola to Lenovo while keeping a majority of the patents.

There is also a happy ending to the story. Like in clichéd endings of movies about warring factions, the two super giants also agreed to work together in the field of patent reforms. This can be good for the overall market too. In an era where knowledge is increasingly getting privatized, an initiative by familiar names would help boost the conversation on the concept of patents in our economies.