Cooperative and Competitive Relations of The Innovation Ecosystem: Apple Vs. Samsung

In 2011, Google purchased Motorola and its patent portfolio for $12.5 billion to protect the Android ecosystem. Google did this acquisition to fend off litigation threats from Apple and to protect its partners. Between 2009 and 2015, many patent infringement lawsuits were filed in various jurisdictions. The most disputed smartphone technologies were mobile data access, touch screen technology and mobile data transmission. One of the most reported fights in the smartphone patent war was the one between Apple and Samsung that involved patents related to iPhone and Galaxy. Samsung’s IP awareness had been awakened
since 1980s by a patent infringement case involving ten US patents on DRAM held by Texas Instruments.
Samsung adopted a strategy for patent protection, establishing an IP division, and making efforts to increase in-house innovativeness3. Samsung was at very high risk in its fight with Apple as they countersue a big company, in addition to that most competing firms, also were Samsung’s customers in that they procured components from Samsung. That led to a massive loss of $1billion paid by Samsung to Apple. This was an example of competitive relations.