commentary Nokia has taken Apple to court over the iPhone's use of 10 core patents covering basic wireless technology.
Nokia says Apple has been using the technologies without paying for them: it is undoubtedly true that Apple has been using them, as you cannot make a GSM phone without these. But the question of who pays whom and how much is very involved. In fact, it defines the shape of the industry.
While patent disputes have been a part of the business of radio since Marconi and his infamous Four Sevens patent of 1900, GSM and its progenitors have brought new levels of complexity and confusion to what is intended to be a mutually advantageous system of law.
There is an enormous irony at the heart of intellectual property. By giving to ideas some of the legal protection that is given to physical things, society recognizes that inventiveness deserves reward, and rewards require ownership. At the same time, IP law is constructed so secrecy is not required, recognizing that ideas have most worth when they are shared.
When dealing with simple things such as a better paperclip or a novel, the commercialization of the rights is a straightforward bargain between the creator and the consumer--albeit with plenty of opportunities for middle men. But when the area of innovation is a mature, complex and hugely interconnected set of ideas, the power struggles can be gargantuan.
So it is with GSM, the global digital mobile telephone standard. We are blinded to the complexity of mobile phones by their ubiquity, low cost and simple appearance. You can buy a handset for 20 pounds (US$33) and, at a press of a button or two, it makes a phone call.
Read more of "Nokia vs Apple: The hidden scandal" at ZDNet UK.
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