How Apple vs Samsung case might affect Indians

BANGALORE, INDIA: Apple Inc scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung last week as a U.S. jury found that the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.05 billion in damages.

After winning the patent violation case, Apple wasted no time in seeking a speedy ban on the sale of eight Samsung Electronics phones including the Galaxy S II and Droid Charge.

However, A U.S. judge on Tuesday set a December 6 court date to hear Apple's request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics' smartphones.

The question that arises now is, if Apple does succeed in getting an injunction against Samsung Electronics' smartphones, how will it affect the Indian consumers?

According to Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President, Research and Advisory Services, CyberMedia Research (CMR), Indian consumers may be affected if Samsung is asked to pull-out the products mentioned, from the market. Read on to know more about what he had to say.

CIOL: How is Apple's patent victory going to affect Indian consumers?

Anirban Banerjee: A dispute such as the legal face-off between Apple and Samsung will take a long time to settle. There will be suits and counter-suits among the two rivals. Specifically talking about the India market, implementation of technology patent regimes is still rather loosely implemented in the country.

Till such time as India starts enforcing international patents regimes strictly, Samsung shares of the smartphones market will continue inch up and Apple will struggle, primarily on account of high prices and the still limited distribution reach of its products.

In the short run this patents fiasco is likely to lead to artificial shortages and relatively fewer options of 'legal' products to choose from for the consumer, but on a longer time horizon the verdict will push device vendors to innovate.

CIOL: Will vendors like Nokia and RIM benefit from this fiasco?

Anirban Banerjee: For vendors like Nokia and RIM, which are struggling to retain market share in recent times, the timing of the Apple vs Samsung verdict is apt to push their own offerings more aggressively. Nokia should look to launch a range of new Windows 8-based phone models, while RIM should aim to introduce Blackberry X OS-based devices at the earliest.

In the long run, I feel the overall patents war will lead us to seek answers to a more fundamental question - What should be the right balance between enforcement of intellectual property (IP) and the basic right of an individual/organisation to compete, in order to avoid a monopolistic market condition?

CIOL: Will there be any ban on Samsung products in India? If products are banned, will existing users be entitled to a software update?

Anirban Banerjee: It's still early to comment but it may happen that Samsung will need to pull out the disputed models from the market temporarily, until there is some agreement between the two parties.