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ITC Agrees to Investigate Apple's Patent Claims Against Motorola

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Apr 12, 2001
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The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) yesterday announced that it has agreed to investigate Apple's claims of patent infringement lodged against Motorola late last month, indicating that a preliminary examination of the case has yielded sufficient cause for the agency to pursue a closer look.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has voted to institute an investigation of certain mobile devices and related software. The products at issue in this investigation are mobile devices, such as smartphones, and their operating systems, user interfaces, and other application software.

The investigation is based on a complaint filed by Apple, Inc., f/k/a Apple Computer, Inc. Of Cupertino, CA, on October 29, 2010. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain mobile devices and related software that infringe patents asserted by Apple. The complainant requests that the USITC issue an exclusion order and a cease and desist order.
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The dispute between Apple and Motorola, one of many in the tech industry, was launched in early October when Motorola filed suit against Apple alleging infringement of eighteen Motorola patents by a variety of Apple products including the iPhone, iPad, "iTouch" (presumably iPod touch), and certain Mac computers. The ITC announced earlier this month that it would investigate Motorola's claims against Apple.

Apple fired back at Motorola in late October with its own claims that a number of Motorola smartphones infringe six Apple patents related to multi-touch technology, claims which the ITC has now also agreed to investigate.

Article Link: ITC Agrees to Investigate Apple's Patent Claims Against Motorola
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/24/itc-agrees-to-investigate-apples-patent-claims-against-motorola/
BC2009

BC2009

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2009
2,237
1,393
All this back and forth with patents is so annoying. I wish we had a better system for protecting intellectual property and enforcing those protections. Right now its just a sea of "mutually assured destruction" defense with patent trolls acting like terrorists (i.e.: those who have nothing to lose), and a bunch of threats that result in cross-licensing deals. Its a wonder any independent software developers can make a living without stepping on one of the patent mines of the big companies.
 
ChromeAce

ChromeAce

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Jun 11, 2009
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Apple should proceed very carefully so as not to jeopardize the iTunes licensed features in the Motorola ROKR.
 
Slix

Slix

macrumors 65816
Mar 24, 2010
1,441
1,989
Patents are getting useless, as BC mentioned. Maybe companies should just stop patenting things. :rolleyes:
 
decimortis

decimortis

macrumors 6502a
Aug 28, 2007
548
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"They've infringed on our patents with their i-Thingy"

"iTouch, sir"

"Yes, that's it! The iTouch is infringing!"

"I think it might be iPod Touch, guys."

"That too!!"
 
I

iphoneblack

macrumors member
May 21, 2008
62
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iPhone took half of the profit pie. Because of Apple, everyone does not know what to do but suing each other.
 
fox10078

fox10078

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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Microsoft is also suing motorola, I think apple and them should team up and just crush them.
 
elppa

elppa

macrumors 68040
Nov 26, 2003
3,233
151
iphoneblack said:
iPhone took half of the profit pie. Because of Apple, everyone does not know what to do but suing each other.
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I'm not sure there is a single handset manufacturer left who wouldn't jump at the chance to be in the position Apple is in. Their profit per phone is ridiculous compared to other manufacturers who don't do their own software.
 
DakotaGuy

DakotaGuy

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Jan 14, 2002
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fox10078 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Microsoft is also suing motorola, I think apple and them should team up and just crush them.
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Why? How does destroying another company improve your iPhone experience?

If it wasn't for Motorola we would not even have cell phones today. Patent claims go back and forth. I know around here most consider Apple 100% innocent in all patent claims and everyone else the infringing parties, but I have a feeling everyone in the business is guilty of using other companies patents.

To make a statement that you want to see a competitor crushed means you do not value competition. You want one phone available from one company. You want everyone forced to use iPhones only. I value choice and I personally think all of these lawsuits are getting completely out of hand.
 
Cubert

Cubert

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2005
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0
iTouch??? Does that mean that part of the lawsuit should be thrown out? I think so. Seriously.
 
LagunaSol

LagunaSol

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Apr 3, 2003
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In the meantime, Google rips off everyone and gives it away for free. :rolleyes:

(And by "free" of course I mean "ad supported.")
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
They should create their own OS, not using a knockoff OS that infringes on patents of Oracle Java and Apple iOS.
 
DakotaGuy

DakotaGuy

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,226
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Consultant said:
They should create their own OS, not using a knockoff OS that infringes on patents of Oracle Java and Apple iOS.
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I have a 2nd Gen iPod Touch that runs a gimped version of iOS4 and a Motorola Droid 2 running Android 2.2 with a light MotoBlur layer over it and I don't see how it is a knock off. They look nothing alike. Nothing. A knock off would suggest they look and function the same. Sort of like a cheap Chinese iPhone knock off that tries to even copy the icons even if it does not function right.
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

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Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
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Didn't Apple say they had all sorts of patents when they first introduced the iPhone? So why are there so many lookalike devices out there? I've never understood which aspects of the iPhone are patented, unlicensed to others, and therefore supposedly patent infringements when "borrowed" by anyone else.
 
Stella

Stella

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Apr 21, 2003
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Doctor Q said:
Didn't Apple say they had all sorts of patents when they first introduced the iPhone? So why are there so many lookalike devices out there? I've never understood which aspects of the iPhone are patented, unlicensed to others, and therefore supposedly patent infringements when "borrowed" by anyone else.
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Apple have already lost some of those patents and others may not be valid.
 
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A

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
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Doctor Q said:
Didn't Apple say they had all sorts of patents when they first introduced the iPhone? So why are there so many lookalike devices out there? I've never understood which aspects of the iPhone are patented, unlicensed to others, and therefore supposedly patent infringements when "borrowed" by anyone else.
Click to expand...

you can't patent multi-touch since anyone can come up with a slightly different algorithm and gestures to do the same things

palm did it first with it's crazy alphabet 10 years ago

apple did it with hands since tech got to the point where a screen was good enough to take input directly from people
 
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