Maybe, maybe not, I couldn't say. But I do wonder how Apple would have fared in another district. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas is known for its pattern of finding for the plaintiff in patent infringement and other "trolling" cases. As mentioned, that's why so many cases are filed there.
It may be that court has a justifiable higher standard for finding for the defendant. If the judge were finding for the plaintiff merely because they were the plaintiff, I'm sure something would have been done about it, or at least attempted by now.
$1Billion may be no more than pocket lint for Apple, but I think it does send a message. That being be more careful or get even better lawyers, or C) all of the above.
Used to be that a CEO who manages to lose a company $1 billion would be fired and replaced. Doesn’t matter if he was directly responsible or not. It happened during his watch.
Technically, the company won't lose a billion. Their insurance company will just make an E&O (Error & Omissions) payout. It's a blanket business policy. I have a $5 million E&O for my small company. It's not that expensive for me, and for a company like Apple I'd imagine an E&O premium would be an even smaller expense, comparatively speaking.
And where does the insurance company's billion dollars come from? Apple... and companies like yours, and all their other customers. I wouldn't downplay the impact of this sort of nonsense simply because insurance covers it - in many ways, that makes it worse, because people who have no part in this at all end up paying, too.
Used to be that a CEO who manages to lose a company $1 billion would be fired and replaced. Doesn’t matter if he was directly responsible or not. It happened during his watch.
Yeah I'm sure you've logged a lot of time in executive boardrooms over the years, roll eyes... A legend in your mind
Comments
It may be that court has a justifiable higher standard for finding for the defendant. If the judge were finding for the plaintiff merely because they were the plaintiff, I'm sure something would have been done about it, or at least attempted by now.
$1Billion may be no more than pocket lint for Apple, but I think it does send a message. That being be more careful or get even better lawyers, or C) all of the above.
And where does the insurance company's billion dollars come from? Apple... and companies like yours, and all their other customers. I wouldn't downplay the impact of this sort of nonsense simply because insurance covers it - in many ways, that makes it worse, because people who have no part in this at all end up paying, too.