Poaching ideas

摘要

A few years back, I was asked to appear (extremely briefly) on a Channel 5 news programme to talk about Apple's patent dispute with Samsung. The case seemed even then to have been going on for longer than Jarndyce vs Jarndyce, and patience was running short; it was felt by most observers that Judge Koh should knock the executives' heads together and tell them to stop wasting the court's time. Having never 'done TV before, I was unprepared for a classic presenters' trick: rehearsing the interview beforehand as a means to appropriate my carefully prepared remarks and use them as part of the filmed questions. (Keep your powder dry during rehearsals if you don't want to look like a mug - there's a bit of free advice for prospective TV interviewees.) But more than this, I remember being thrown by the suggestion that Apple vs Samsung "is just a playground argument, isn't it?" We were talking about products that bring in billions upon billions in high-margin revenue. How much more serious could it get?