Apple settles with Nokia, sues HTC

[Scrooge]

It seems that in the last couple of years Apple applied for and were granted an number of patents in the US in regards to touch screens, multi-touch, lucking and unlocking a device via a sliding motion on a touch screen ! The list goes on.

LINK

Now it seems to me that these patents are a little to broad in the way they are written, however, if the court upholds these then a couple of few things could happen.

The I-Phone will be the only touch screen phone.

Apple pockets a bunch of royalties.

Google/MS get fed up with Steve Jobs and buys the company.

It's a bit sad really. The company seems to have gone from innovation to litigation. It's was always going to be a minefield when you try and patent 'gestures'


... Didn't they 'nick' the mouse and windows from Xerox? [:?]

[Scrooge]

Nope, I think that was MS.

[Pete]

Apple lifted the mouse & windows idea from Xerox Parcs, albeit at their invitation of the Parcs developers as parent Xerox didn't see a future in the idea. Microsoft then pretty much copied the idea wholesale from Mac (and have been for years) causing a very long-running lawsuit between Apple and Microsoft which was only resolved when Steve returned to Apple and MS 'invested' in the (then) struggling company.

However, fair play to Apple for defending its patents. If Apple hadn't developed the iPhone, I'm pretty sure HTC wouldn't have independently created their phones to look and behave the way they do. They're simply ripping off the ideas because the market have acknowledged it's a great user interface. Why should Apple pay for the R&D to develop that, so HTC (and Google, etc) can profit from it? That's what patents are for, after all.

You may look at it and think, 'how on earth can you patent a 'swipe' gesture to turn the phone on?' - but if it were such an obvious way to do it, why had no one done it before Apple? Wouldn't we be more impressed if HTC came up with an interface which was innovative and original, rather than just copy Apple?

quote:Originally posted by Pete
However, fair play to Apple for defending its patents. If Apple hadn't developed the iPhone, I'm pretty sure HTC wouldn't have independently created their phones to look and behave the way they do. They're simply ripping off the ideas because the market have acknowledged it's a great user interface. Why should Apple pay for the R&D to develop that, so HTC (and Google, etc) can profit from it? That's what patents are for, after all.

I suppose you have a point, but it could also be argued that it's an excuse for Apple to continue innovating and let the rest use the technology from yesterday. The mobile phone industry is very competitive, so it was only going to be a matter of time before the big guns such as Nokia and Samsung released their own offerings to match (or even beat) the iPhone.

As for the iPhone being the only touch screen phone on the market, I can only see that as being a worst case scenario.

[Darren Wheeler]

From what I've seen so far, nothing comes close to the iPhone in both design, usability and performance (except battery life). The others keep trying but fail each time. Both Samsung and Nokia have lost the edge now, Sony Ericsson still soldier on and in the UK, Motorola are all but dead.

[Scrooge]

Very true, in many ways as you said the Iphone does trounce the competition.

Motorola seems to be attaching itself to Android now, which does open up a lot of avenues for them.

seams like more $$$$ for the lawyers to me. (some of whom did the loose patents no doubt)

maybe mud wrestling or a joust would be quicker and cheaper?

[Darren Wheeler]

Shakespeare King Henry VI (Part II) Act IV Scene II.

'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers'

Um just playing devils advocate... HTC were producing touch-screen devices before Apple were, that had 'swipe' gestures too...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/bl ... touchlaunc

Having gone through a two and a half year patent lawsuit which ended at trial, i don't envy these folks. Even though we won, it certainly cost a lot of money. Then again, losing can be even more painful:

[url=139 million dollars in damages awarded]
\http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/170899/versata_wins_139m_damages_in_sap_patent_lawsuit.html[/url]

Apple is probably not a patent troll. [:D] They have the patents and that will be the starting point of any litigation. The fact that, for example, HTC might have done part of their work prior to the patent is potential evidence for invalidity of the patent.

Invalidating a US patent in the courts, though, is extremely hard: a judge won't do it, the jury must, and somehow it is extremely hard to convince jurors that someone who went through a patent office review and was granted a patent might actually NOT have invented anything much. Unfortunately in technology we are seeing a rash of situations where entities patent an implementation, then turn around and sue anyone who implements the same concept, even if differently. This is not likely to stop until someone goes all the way to the supreme court with a BS lawsuit they are losing, and gets the supes to clarify this. While they have hinted at the frivolity of some of the stuff going on in the patent world in the US, nothing's been properly clarified yet.

Meanwhile, Apple's not suing for a BS financial settlement, for sure, and their patent portfolio looks formidable. Taking that down will be almost impossible IMO.