As you probably have heard, Samsung lost most of the first battle in a U.S. lawsuit by Apple with initial damages set at about $1 billion. Apple claimed that they were innovative, while Samsung claimed that they simply applied the best practice of building on common knowledge (while including their own innovations).

Intellectual property protection today has gotten to be a complicated business with huge stakes. But what is innovation anyway? How often do we come up with really new ideas compared with incrementally improving and combining existing ones?

In this talk, I will discuss what innovation is and societies role in balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders. I will do this by taking a deep dive into patents. Based on my experience in the U.S. with a startup developing new patents and working as an "expert witness" in patent litigation, I will examine how patents are issued, and how they are asserted. My goal is to think about the line between protecting investors in innovation, and enabling others to learn from the world around them.