Study: Royalty Charges Almost On Par With Component Costs For Smartphones

Bismillah (993337) writes "An interesting study by WilmerHale lawyers and Intel's assistant general counsel Ann Armstrong looked into how much royalty payments and demands actually amount to per device, and found the cost so high it threatens industry profitability and competitiveness. 'As the bank robber Willie Sutton is reported to have said, he robbed banks 'because that's where the money is' - so too of smartphones for patent holders,' the authors wrote."

Comments

Re:The people that invent things must be compensat

[wbr1]

Interesting fact. In america , recipes are not subject to copyright or patent. General mills, and other cereal makers, as well as other food companies rely on jealously guarded trade secrets. This does not stop generic copy cat foods (is store brand sodas and generic cereals) from being made. In fact they proliferate. Some are indistinguishable or better than the original. Some are junk.

This is the market in operation. Stopping patents will not slow or stop innovation, it will spur some as companies need to invent to differentiate from the rest. Then when they are copied, it continues. In this sense, necessity is the mother of new invention. The necessity of being unique and valuable Ina sea of clones.