MAPID (Mutually Assured Patent Infringement Destruction)

Its not even worth getting into the gory details of the Apple vs. Samsung patent war, (somewhat dated infographic here), but its showing no signs of letting up, with the latest volley including - get this - cases.

 Meanwhile, Motorola and Microsoft are going at it, as are British Telecom and Google.

Yeah, we can go on about Intellectual Property, The Rule Of Law, etc., but that is really somewhat besides the point.  The problem is that each of the entities above is large, with humongously huge patent portfolios.  Right now, they are only lobbying these missiles at each other, but the stakes are rising, and the sounds are getting increasingly acrimonious.  If the gloves come off, it will be armageddon, and we, the bystanders, are sure to suffer in the Technology Winter that follows.

MAPID was a theory that worked for a while, with the obligatory cross-licensing amongst the behemoths (and the ritual ignoring of the small fry, except when they became large enough to be noticed), but in many ways, we have no-one to blame but ourselves.  Starting with the dot-com era, it has become increasingly obvious that small-fry can become Huge Fry in virtually no time (Google, Facebook, GroupOn, etc.).  The problem, however, is that the Nouvelle Grande have not had the time to build up their arsenal of patents, and have to beg/borrow/buy them from others (Google and Motorola Mobility).  Consequently, the old guard are increasingly willing to actually lob their patents at others, and damn the consequences.

The future may end up not being as interesting as we hoped...