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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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/
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