All this Patent stuff is getting a little old by now, don’t you think? I, for one, am getting a little tired of all the litigation and the proverbial chest thump from whoever owns the most patents on a sqaure or the sexiest rectangle. It’s all a little too much and something that isn’t going to help the industry but hinder it, there’s a place for patents, you’d have to be stupid to think otherwise but, the way that they’re being used today is pretty stupid itself. While a lot of the big name Android manufacturers have been hit with litigation, HTC, Motorola and Samsung are the ones that come to mind.
LG however, have gotten off lightly and have yet to face litigation from Apple or anybody else and while they’ve signed agreements with Microsoft to license patents for Android they’ve experience nothing like their Korean friends, Samsung. Is this because Apple don’t feel that they are a threat just yet or are Apple trying to get Samsung out of the way first? It could also have something to do with the fact that LG has a vast amount of 4G patents in its war chest that might just keep Apple away. However, this latest ad from LG – in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal – is to make sure you understand that LG are a peaceful company and that they’re more than happy to work with others in the industry to achieve something great.
“We Make Phones Not War”
In LG’s latest ad that can be found in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal the company wants you to know that they’re in the phone business and not in the business of war. It’s certainly a change from the normal advertisements that are doing the rounds when it comes to smartphones but, will it be successful for the company? The new ad is for the Optimus G that’s available on both Sprint and AT&T and As the ad goes on, LG has a couple of things to tell us, going on to tell us that they worked with a number of different aspects of the phone with different people in order to deliver a brilliant overall package. However, LG didn’t hesitate to let us know that the company “now owns many of industry’s essential LTE patents”, sort of seems like a warning shot? The text of which you’ll find below:
So, what do you think? Is this sort of ad something that will help the company’s reputation in the States? Is it something different or just more of the same?