I did not mean any offense Swordmaker. I have always valued your advice and the knowledge that you have of Apple products. I was strictly quoting from articles that I have read on multiple occasions all of which have indicated that Apple is spending far, far more than $375 million on their legal team. To be honest I am completely baffled by your figure. Are you carefully choosing your words by saying “legal defense” which may have a more specific meaning than legal team? If so then shame on you.
First I would bring this article to your attention:
Has Apple slashed their legal teams budget and thrown hundreds of hapless ambulance chasers back out on the streets? It doesn't appear so... I will bring to your attention an article that headlines that Apples legal budget increased to $3.4 billion dollars in 2012:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/31/apples-rd-spending-climbs-1-billion-to-3-4-billion-during-fy-2012/
Then here is another article from CNET that claims that Apples legal budget increased and additional 32% from 2102 to 2013 to $4.5 billion but they say that their rivals Microsoft and Google spent even more.
http://www.cnet.com/news/apples-r-d-up-32-percent-in-2013-still-dwarfed-by-rivals/
This article of course also makes my point, without intending any disrespect to Apple. My contention is that our legal system is broken and we have many of our society's most talented people squandering their time and effort trying to either rip each other off or defending against those who are using the system to rip other people off. If I am being misled by a vast body of the evidence that would seem to refute your statements then please explain.
As Emily Latella Gilda Radner would have said on SNL in the late 1970s... “NEVER MIND”!
The only thing that REALLY offends me is false data, fireman15. . . and that was what you were posting. I am not offended at you. However, you are wrong about your links you are providing. MY DATA on Apple's legal costs are correct. $375 MILLION is a HUGE amount of money, and will buy you a lot of legal work. Let's look at your links:
The first one from Gizmodo's title is claims that "Apple and Google spent more on legal fees than R&D last year and that Google apparently thinks that Apple wants it that way". At least that is the title of the opinion piece written someone named Adrien Covert. . . a blogger who has no background at all in anything except blowing. Notice the one thing he DOES NOT INCLUDE in his article is any dollar figure for how much Apple or Google spends on their legal expenses. This bozo also claims that Apple spends far less than any other major He PLUCKS his gem out of thin air: "That's far less than nearly every major company in tech," when that is patently false because $3.4 Billion dollars is more than MOST every major company in tech makes! The rest of his conclusions he seems to have pulled out of his nether orifice, especially the one about spending more on legal costs than R&D. Oh, he does seem to lump capitol asset IP acquisitions in his "legal" expenses. . . showing he has no idea of what he is talking about in business accounting.
Has Apple slashed their legal teams budget and thrown hundreds of hapless ambulance chasers back out on the streets? It doesn't appear so... I will bring to your attention an article that headlines that Apples legal budget increased to $3.4 billion dollars in 2012:
Really? Read that headline again, fireman15. That is NOT what that headline states! Not at all. Here, let me post it for you: "Apple's R&D spending climbs $1 billion to $3.4 Billion during FY 2012"/.
Nowhere in that linked article does it say that Apple's legal expenses climbed to $3.4 Billion as you just claimed it did. . . in fact, no where in that article are legal expenses even mentioned! Sorry. BZZZZTTTT!
As for you third link, which claims the following:
"Apple remains one of the smallest R&D spenders compared with its peers. Microsoft, for instance, spent $10.4 billion, or 13 percent of the company's revenue, on research during its 2013 fiscal year, which ran through June. There's also Google, which has spent $5.8 billion so far this year (and $9.8 billion in all of 2012), as well as Samsung, which spent around $10.5 billion on R&D last year and which is currently building a massive new facility in Silicon Valley .Perhaps a closer comparison is Amazon, which has spent $4.7 billion so far this year, already beyond the $4.6 billion it spent during all of last year.
Can you show us exactly what fruits and products Microsoft, Google, and Samsung have brought to market that can possibly JUSTIFY those huge expenditures? What are they? Windows 8.1 update? MicrosoftPhone? GoogleGlass? Autodriving cars? Samsung's next Galaxy me too phone iteration that looks like their last phone but with a couple of added bells and whistles? Amazon Kindle what????
Apple's very targeted R&D has brought more BANK for their buck in their research than any of these companies' R&D has. . . save, perhaps Samsung and the research they do on basic chip and screen technology, but even there Apple's bottom line is far better.
Then, the article STILL does not reference anything about Apple's legal expenses. Nothing at all.
My friend, the claim that Apple or Google spend more on legal expenses than R&D is bogus and I think it may have gotten its earliest start with our idiot blogger Adrien Covert who essentially pulled it out of his ass and other bloggers took it and ran with it.
I have been shooting this canard down for quite some time with facts. . . but it STILL keeps popping uphat's why I respond a bit testily. These false stories and myths take on a life of their own . . and are like fighting the hydra. Chop one head off and two more grow back. That's why I respond a bit testily. Sorry about that.