SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- As Apple Inc.'s iPhone faces stiffer competition in the lucrative market for smart phones, the company is going after one of its main rivals with patent lawsuits claiming theft of touch screen technology and other features.
Of course... If you can't find any talented and imaginative engineers, instead you can substitute a roughly equal number of clever and imaginative lawyers..
Oh, give me a freaking break! If someone else comes up with a product that can compete, the corporate approach is to sue the competitor. But, you don't sue them immediately. You wait until they see some success first. I hope HTC and Android kick the iPhone's butt.
Apple is becoming has become the "Big Brother" that they originally implied their products represented freedom from.
Oh, give me a freaking break! If someone else comes up with a product that can compete, the corporate approach is to sue the competitor. But, you don't sue them immediately. You wait until they see some success first. I hope HTC and Android kick the iPhone's butt.
Apple is becoming has become the "Big Brother" that they originally implied their products represented freedom from.
Agreed.
Although, I'm not going to lie, seeing a Microsoft product as the "underdog" is really fun and novel.
If there really was patent infringement, what were they supposed to do- ignore it?
No. But the patent system is broken. Corporations collect and purchase patents in order to stifle competition. Anytime a company comes out with a successful product, the competition starts looking through their patent portfolio to find something they can claim it infringes on. Patents should help to protect the company or individual that invents something unique, but they are now being used for corporations to wage war against each other. Apple is one of the largest users of this strategy.
I don't have an easy answer. Maybe Apple is right this time. Maybe not. It'll be expensive to find out though.
Apple is built on innovation. HTC and many others are built on copies of innovation. I fully support that these need some friction (i.e. lawsuits when they're too bold) to give incentive for innovation. Otherwise, the consumer will suffer in the end.
I'm not saying it's not valid, but Apple filed 20 patent violations against HTC. 20?! My b.s. detector is going off. I'd like to see someone sue Apple for introducing 2 button mice on thier computers. After all, Apple traditionally only had 1 button and only introduced 2 buttons when they saw others were using them and they sold. Sounds like infringement to me.
2-buttons vs 1 button on a mouse is not a technology but rather a concept. AFAIK, you can't sue for copying concepts (at least not in most cases).
i.e. If HTC made a touch screen with the exact same feel, functionality and look as Apple, I'm not sure they would have a case. But the moment they reverse engineer the technology and copy it; I think they're crossing boundaries.
It's a good thing this way of using patents didn't exist when the automobile was invented. We would now have a bewildering array of levers, buttons and other non-infringing interface methods instead of the universally understood arrangement of a steering wheel and foot pedals.
Again, I'm not saying Apple doesn't not have supportable claims. I don't know enough to say if it does or does not. I am saying this smacks of waging corporate warfare using the legal system.
2-buttons vs 1 button on a mouse is not a technology but rather a concept. AFAIK, you can't sue for copying concepts (at least not in most cases).
How is a 2 button mouse only a concept, while a touchscreen is a real device?
You're right. A touch screen is a concept too. But the law suit (as far as I understand it) is about the actual technology used to behind and; amongst other things, to be able to use two fingers at the same time. This is also a concept... but they copied the technology (i.e. software & hardware).
