Infographic: Who’s Suing Whom In Mobile… As Re-Imagined By A Competent Designer

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We absolutely loved that fantastic chart we posted yesterday showing off the litigious melee amongst smartphone companies as they all try to figure out which of their thousands of patents are enforceable and which are nonsense… but, infographically, it was a bit ugly, like a particularly inelegant illustration of magnetic repulsion found in a 70s-era high school physics book.

The updated chart by George Kokkinidis above conveys the same information more attractively, with clean geometric precision, sexy fonts and color coded arcs.

We approve. Maybe the Guardian should hire this guy instead of doing all of their infographics in Powerpoint ’97.

Otherwise, it’s the same information as before. What these charts are making clear is that this is really a very contentious time in tech. All of these companies have roomfuls of patents in both hardware and software, and all of them are selling similar phones, but no one is entirely sure which patents are enforceable and which are just nonsense. You can expect a lot more of these sorts of suits before the dust settles and the landscape is again clear, but in the meantime, this sort of fracas just has to be stifling to innovation. The sooner these companies sue themselves tired, the better.

[via Daring Fireball

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