COMM 352-Blog #2-Patents & Steve Jobs

This story from TheVerge.com is an example of how Steve Jobs and Apple have used their patents as a means of seeking litigation and controlling the mobile market.  Now, the popular debate in regard to this is whether Apple is right in their actions or whether it is wrong that they have the ability to do this.  My personal opinion on this matter is that it is not right that Apple has the ability to sue someone for the shape of a phone, or as in the story above, sue a company for hiring former Apple employee.  The way I see it is that with these outrageous abilities to sue a company over the shape of a phone or the fact that they hired former employees of Apple is bordering on having a monopoly over the entire mobile market. I absolutely believe that the mobile market is big enough and diverse enough for more than one company to exist.  As for the story from TheVerge.com, I believe that former employees of Apple should be able to work wherever they want and if they want to work at a competing company, than the company should be able to hire that person without threat of litigation from Apple.  And lastly, for the idea of Apple being able to sue a company for have the same shaped technological device is ludicrous. Bottom line:  Apple does not and should not be able to own shapes.