• Jesus@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    In its suit, Samsung alleged that Oura had a history of filing patent suits against competitors like Ultrahuman, RingConn, and Circular for “features common to virtually all smart rings,” such as sensors, batteries, and common health metrics.

    The problem isn’t the features, it’s that Samsung is copying the very concept of a smart ring. Oura was the first company to make and patent biometric smart rings. So, yeah, if you make a biometric smart ring without paying them, you’re getting sued. That’s how patents work.

    For the past 30 years, Samsung’s consumer product development strategy has been 75% “copy the competitors, then pay lawyers to fight it out.”

    • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
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      3 days ago

      The concept of a smart ring shouldn’t be patentable, and maybe it isn’t im not sure. IP laws are really broken, all laws are but I think IP even more so.

      • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Exactly, should apple be allowed to patent a phone with a rectangular touch screen. A basic broad idea like this shouldn’t be something that’s allowed to be patented

        • bach37strad @lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I’ve patented the color blue. Anyone who wants to use blue will have to pay me royalties.

          Anyone remember the vantablack bs?

          • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Vantablack is a specific chemical product, not a color. If you can get something just as black via a different process they can’t do anything.