Take IPhone chargers for example. There are hundreds of companies in the marketing making simple and cheap IPhone Wireless chargers, some of which are actually better than the cables sold by Apple themselves…. How are they all able to make the same product when patents exist? Does Apple have the patent to the lighting connector and if so why is it not enforced?
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Patents only apply in the country they are issued.
A lot of electronic accessories are manufactured in countries that the patent either doesn’t apply in, or they don’t care.
China for example is notorious for lax patent and copyright law when it comes to protecting the interest of Chinese companies.
Such unlicensed products are theoretically stopped at the border to prevent them from being sold in US stores, thus enforcing the patent, but a lot gets through with private and online sellers.
That being said, the majority of Lightning Connector accessories are in fact licensed products. The companies that make them pay Apple a royalty fee for each product sold.
That’s why Apple resisted so hard against the laws mandating USB-C because they wouldn’t get paid royalties for accessories if they use the open standard.
This is also why the European Union passed that law, to stop this exact kind of anti-consumer behavior
Do you want a specific to iPhone accessories, Lightning cables or in general?
Intellectual property gets complicated and unintuitive pretty quickly.
In this case, it sounds like you’re assuming that Apple would patent the Lightning cable and only Apple could make it, and anybody else who made one was infringing?
Lightning cables and other accessories go through the MFI licensing process: https://mfi.apple.com/ Manufacturers can apply for certification and work with Apple to ensure their product meets the standards. For Lightning, it’s also a [$4 license fee]. That’s the enforcement. They might go after people trying to make Lightning connectors without going through certification and licensing.
By licensing it out, Apple allows other companies to make their own products, whether they’re cheaper or fancier, like kevlar braided jackets or gold-plating the connectors.
For wireless chargers, there is an open standard made by multiple companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(standard) Standards like CDs, DVD, and USB are also from multiple companies. It’s beneficial in some (many?) cases to have a standard that everybody works toward rather than one company trying to extinguish any other standards. But then it’s a business question. ELI5 actually has a rule against asking about motivation of specific companies because it almost has to be speculation.
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=patent&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all looks like a lot to wade through to find a good overview on patents. Nothing jumped out at me on YouTube, so you could search “patent” there and try some. https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics seems to be geared to the general public.
This one seems ok: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/t184kx/eli5_how_do_patents_work/
Some of the parts are standards (eg various USB standards) while others are made by licensing Apple’s technology (Lightning).
a patent gives you exclusive ownership within the confines of the country granting the patent.
it is your problem to find the violators and to prosecute (sue) them.
generally battery chargers have been around for years and years so what really is the patent? something obvious or something not very obvious?
example a barcode scanner shaped like a pistol with a trigger? or something on the circuit board inside the device you cannot see and is not obvious?
discovering the violator is hard.
better patents are clear, easy and obvious
or is it buried deep inside the thing?
prosecuting (sueing) them is harder
then if you win… will you actually get paid
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