Apple's current CEO Tim Cook once stated that he would love to see the world's other iT makers "invent their own technology," and Apple doesn't have to "invent for the world."
Google General Counsel Kent Walker disagrees with Cook's statement and wrote a letter to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee a few days ago stating that commercial inventions that affect "consumer well-being" are as important as technical inventions. patents, i.e. the Cupertino company needs to relinquish its ownership of certain commercial inventions.
As All Things summarizes:
Cupertino strongly disagrees with this interpretation. Bruce Sewell, Apple's chief attorney, responded by saying that just the fact that "proprietary technology is becoming very popular does not make it 'standard' and does not impose legal restrictions and obligations as this standard".
In other words, just because Apple's devices are extremely popular with consumers shouldn't mean that the company should license those technologies to competitors. Since the world saw the first iPhone in 2007, Apple has taken over patents for virtually every iOS technology.
From Sewell's letter:
Despite the fact that Tim Cook insisted that he hated lawsuits, which he once likened to a "pain in the ass," the Apple founder has always been determined to protect the company's inventions from imitators.
