The litigious nature of the technology industry was brought into sharp relief by my six year old daughter this week.  When her demands to receive an Apple iPad for Xmas from her parents were met with a definitive negative, she explained, very composedly, that this was fine as she would simply ask Father Christmas to make one for her.

Now, I am no patent attorney but if Apple can give Samsung and HTC a right good legal kicking for merely imitating features of the iPad (allegedly – I should add), then just what would our fruity friends do to Santa and his Elves for a complete product knock-off ?  I’d imagine that compensation claims would be arriving pretty quickly at the North Pole and “Cease and Desist” orders would put a stop all the industry in the Lapland workshops.   There would probably follow a ten year protracted legal dispute with suits and counter suits where Santa would claim to have a cross-licensing agreement courtesy of historical precedents where Apple had failed to take action for similar infringements.

The trouble is that no matter how hard I tried to explain the consequences of this legal minefield to my daughter, she just refused to understand the intricacies of intellectual property law.  Oh well, I will either have to buy her the iPad or tell her that Santa is just not real.  I think I know what I am going to do...

Julian