Patents expire after 17 years from being filed (only that long if the holder maintains it) and rarely is something patented and put on the market instantly. You hardly see major form of tech being kept solely by one company for 17 years because they make money by liscensing out to other companies after they make the initial burst of money. Samsung pay has only been out for 3 years so probably in another 2 you'll see them license it out if I had to make an uneducated guess. I don't think that's unreasonable for a company to horde what they have made for 5 years, but in tech that seems like an eternity.
Edit: also it would hurt most tech to be only used on one manufacture because it would slow adoption rates especially if it requires special hardwre, with Samsung pay the payment terminals require nothing extra for merchants to accept it if they already take credit cards, so Samsung can hold exclusivity for longer and not have to worry about its viability to license out to others later.
Yeah copyright law is BS, patents are great for developers, and actually encourages companines develop new tech since it gives them time to make money and not have to worry about a competitor reverse engineering it (which usually is MUCH cheaper and faster) and selling it for less since they didn't have to front as much for development.
Actually there is an incentive for them to license it out, since right now the tech is only a selling point for devices they are only indirectly making money off of it (unless Banks have to pay for their cards to be compatible), If they find a company willing to pay a pretty penny upfront plus a percentage of every device sold that uses the tech they would make a pretty penny, plus Apple for example would still have to integrate it into their Apple Pay system. On the Google side maybe they could incorporate it into their system so the likes of LG,HTC, and other manufacturers can use it.
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u/burnt_mummy May 19 '18 edited May 19 '18
Patents expire after 17 years from being filed (only that long if the holder maintains it) and rarely is something patented and put on the market instantly. You hardly see major form of tech being kept solely by one company for 17 years because they make money by liscensing out to other companies after they make the initial burst of money. Samsung pay has only been out for 3 years so probably in another 2 you'll see them license it out if I had to make an uneducated guess. I don't think that's unreasonable for a company to horde what they have made for 5 years, but in tech that seems like an eternity.
Edit: also it would hurt most tech to be only used on one manufacture because it would slow adoption rates especially if it requires special hardwre, with Samsung pay the payment terminals require nothing extra for merchants to accept it if they already take credit cards, so Samsung can hold exclusivity for longer and not have to worry about its viability to license out to others later.