7/27/2012- Votacall Hosted VoIP & Cloud Based UC Solutions- Boston, Massachusetts–It seems every day there is a new trending story on the internet, this has to do with the topic of Apple suing another company (Samsung) over rights of its patents and infringement on that. Most recently, Apple won a case to temporarily ban sales on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the point that the soft-wares 'local unified search interface' was too similar to Apples patent. In response, Samsung removed this search feature from its phones in hopes of getting the temporary sales ban removed. This is not the first Andriod feature to surrender to Apple patent lawsuits. HTC changed its multi-point data tapping features and changed it to a single click service. Meaning, they found a loop-hole in the patent and slightly modified its software in order to avoid an import ban. Another scenario with Samsung and Apple deals with the over-scrolling of the screen and how it alerts the user. Apples patent states that when a user scrolls past the boundaries it snaps back onto the page when the finger releases it. Samsung's new software now makes the screen glow when the scroll goes out of bounds, even though the change was implemented, Apple still has demanded royalties for Samsungs past use of the over-scroll bounce. You would think these Telecom companies would be happy to collaborate with one another and expand technology by using each other's ideas. This is completely opposite to how it works, these companies are in constant battles over profits earned from patent based technology. However, don't they lose millions of dollars over the course of years in the court room? Lawyers are not cheap and the constant deliberation of these cases can take a toll on the pocket book. This makes the companies lose money, even though their main goal during lawsuits is to earn it. For me this does not make sense, I work for a Cloud Communication company (Votacall) that goes about its business without lawsuits and somehow remains very successful. Cloud technology is provided by many companies along with a broad range of services. Being a hosted voip provider does not mean we can go out and patent the whole Cloud idea, that would be ridiculous. I feel Corporations, especially within the Telecom sector, are greedy and will toss all values out the window to make a dollar. We have many Votacall VoIP Apps and Updates, but we don't scour the web looking for competitors who have adopted our technology or services. We use our Reliable VoIP and Managed Service to stay ahead of the competition, regardless of what ideas they try and adopt from us. I believe that if a company is committed to the improvement of technology for the greater good of everyone, that they will succeed and will not have to spend millions in lawsuits. You rarley hear other Telecom giants such as Polycom, Avaya and Broadsoft dealing with lawsuits over patent rights. I honestly feel this is because they (along with Votacall) do business within the Cloud industry and there is plenty of business to go around without bickering like little children (apple and samsung). Votacall is a massachusetts voip provider and specifically a boston voip provider, but that does not mean we would start suing another business class voip company if they moved in down the street. We provide services around the country and do not get territorial within our state or even with our products. I feel all this lawsuit nonsense is a waste of time, if these companies spent half the time worrying about business that they did patent violations, they would already be the leading company in the world (even though apple is successful, imagine what they could achieve without these distractions). I think Steve Jobs would want people to read about Apple's Innovation and Ideas, instead of its pending lawsuit trials.
Posted by Andrew DeAngelis - 18 August, 2012
