TODAYonline | Commentary | The insanity of patent warfare

TODAYonline | Commentary | The insanity of patent warfare:

Earlier this month, a court in Germany ruled that Samsung's latest gadget, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, may be infringing on Apple's patents, effectively banning the Korean company from launching its tablet in most countries across Europe. The ruling marked another in a series of setbacks for Samsung, which now stands alongside HTC and Motorola at the receiving end of the world's biggest company's lawsuits.

Then there is Microsoft, which has developed an IP strategy that strangely allows it to make more money from Google's Android operating system than it does from its own Windows Phone 7. Citigroup analysts estimate that for every Android licence that HTC gets from Google (for free), the company pays US$5 to Microsoft - a small fee to avoid a lawsuit claiming that the Android OS infringes on Microsoft's patents.