Apple - Samsung Trial

All the mobile manufacturers are not going to remain knotted-up in arbitrations and trials forever. They will eventually reach a settlement. This fact was known even before the verdict that came out last week. This was the precise reason for which Judge Koh had mocked the lawyers of both the firms for wasting the courts time, during the arbitration stage.

The only real change that comes about due to the verdict is the negotiating power. The reason the CEOs of Apple and Samsung could not reach an agreement earlier, when the court asked them to seek a solution outside of court, was because of neither knew where the negotiating power really lay.

If you look at it from the perspective of game theory, the two sides were not reaching a state of equilibrium due to the lack of clarity over the worst case outcome.

That has been cleared out by this verdict, for the purpose of both sides. If Samsung is facing up to trouble today, Apple knows what trouble could head its way another day.

I predict that settlements will come thick and fast over the next 3 years or so and a new system for sharing patents like the FRAND will emerge. Then they will eventually fight over that as well. But that is for later. This one was just about creating the negotiating platform.