The recent legal dispute between Apple and Samsung over alleged patent violations has many Americans talking. Of course, these aren’t the first companies to have this type of feud. But how do legal disputes and similar situations affect the opinions of consumers? Are there really any winners and losers in the public arena when all is said and done?
Legal Disputes
In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 12% of consumers said that legal disputes would definitely impact their opinion of the company or companies involved. 31% said their opinions are somewhat impacted by legal disputes. 43% said that legal disputes only alter their opinions in certain cases. And 14% said that legal disputes don’t impact their opinions at all.
Patent Violations
More specifically, 15% said that they would definitely think less of a company that was accused of patent violations. 32% said their opinion is somewhat impacted if a company is accused of patent violations. 38% said that their opinion is only impacted in certain cases. And 15% said their opinion is not altered by accusations of patent violations.
On the other hand, though, 42% said they would definitely think less of a company for filing such suits if the accusations happened too often or if they seemed to be baseless suits. 27% said they might think less of a company for accusing others of patent violations. And 31% said they wouldn’t think any less of a company for filing patent violation complaints.
Apple and Samsung
In this particular case, public opinion may be based more on how consumers view the two companies, since they are such big names. Overall, 25% said they have a very positive opinion of Apple. 28% said they have a somewhat positive opinion of Apple. 30% described their opinion as neutral. 11% said they have a somewhat negative opinion of Apple. And just 6% said they have a very negative opinion of Apple.
24% said they have a very positive opinion of Samsung. 36% said they have a somewhat positive opinion of Samsung. 33% described their opinion as neutral. 6% said they have a somewhat negative opinion of Samsung. And just 2% said they have a very negative opinion of Samsung.
You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.
Photo Credit: Samsung Galaxy SII and iPhone 4 from Flickr
What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.
Results were collected on August 31 via AYTM’s online survey panel.
