Guest commentary: RIM’s prescription for patent peace in the smartphone arena

(July 16, 2012) -- Consumers worldwide have greatly benefited from the rapid growth of the global wireless telecommunications (“smartphone”) industry in recent years. Smartphones make email, entertainment, web-browsing, and telephony worldwide available 24/7 at affordable prices. Major smartphone “platforms” are provided by Research In Motion (RIM) through its BlackBerry devices, Apple through the iPhone, Google through the Android system (through Samsung and other smartphone producers), and Microsoft through Windows Mobile (currently sold by Nokia and others). As technology has advanced, the options available to smartphone buyers have mushroomed. The private sector greatly benefits as well – smartphones provide instant communications and enhance informational flows among users, thereby reducing costs and creating opportunities for innovation and growth in a host of industries. Policies that strengthen competition in smartphone platform markets therefore have positive spillover effects on markets as a whole, and policies that undermine smartphone platform competition can harm the economy....

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