http://bit.ly/9V5Qjn
"For tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his owne petar".
lol
The US trade watchdog confirmed this week that it would investigate patent infringement allegations made by Elan Microelectronics against Apple last month. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said in a statement that it had voted to probe "certain electronic devices with multi-touch enabled touchpads and touchscreens …
From most of the Patent lawsuits I have seen filed over recent years it appears that it is an incredibly slow and costly process.
My guess is that the company first of all has to guess the product might infringe their IP, then get hold of one & deconstruct it to find out how it works and then they would have to prove that the similarities are enough to infringe on patent (In some cases that could be very difficult, or possibly even illegal if, say, the infringement has been encrypted).
Companies such as Apple claim commercial secrecy to keep their competative edge.
- On the other hand when you employ staff who have worked for another company then similarites between the products should be looked at closely in case the employee has "stolen" IP from their previous employer.