On November 30, KUSCO organized “The 4th Washington Science and Technology Forum” at KUSCO Conference room. KUSCO was honored to invite Steven S. Payne, Esq., Senior Patent Attorney, LRK Patent Law Firm to speak at the forum.
The theme was “A Global Patent War: Samsung vs. Apple”. This talk dealt with the “Patent battle of the Century”; the battle of technology giants. Back in April, 2011, Apple filed its first lawsuit, accusing Samsung of infringing on its patents. Since then, Samsung also has counter-sued, accusing that Apple has infringed on many of its patents dealing with not only designs but also essential patents that have to do with 3G & 4G LTE technologies. As of now, Samsung and Apple have been involved in over 50 lawsuits worldwide.
Attorney Payne carefully examined and explained different corporate beliefs held by both companies on the role of intellectual property and standards in the telecommunication industry, which have eventually led them into this battle. He also shared his insights on how their differences can be resolved by providing possible answers to Apple’s major arguments, such as “Should the ability to zoom in on a touch-screen phone with the tap of a finger be something protected by patents? Is the “bounce-back” feature – when a user scrolls to an end image – unique to one brand? And should the design of rectangles with round edges belong to one company alone?”.
There were more than 50 participants including S&T related scholars, government officials, WEST participants, all of whom participated actively in the Q&A session.
KUSCO plans to hold more forums in 2013, inviting distinguished speakers from various fields.