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Google's Top Lawyer: Some Apple Inventions are Commercially Essential, Should Be Made Into Standards

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that he wants other companies to "invent their own stuff", and that Apple shouldn't be "inventor for the world".

Google General Counsel Kent Walker disagrees, and this month wrote a letter to the US Senate Judiciary Committee arguing that commercial inventions that impact "consumer welfare" should be just as important as technical patents.

All Things D's John Paczkowski interprets Walker's argument thusly:
In other words, Google's view is that just as there are patents that are standard essential, there are also patents that are commercially essential -- patents that cover features that are so popular as to have become ubiquitous. The latter are just as ripe for abuse as the former, and withholding them is just as harmful to consumers and the competitive marketplace. Viewed through that lens, multitouch technology or slide-to-unlock might be treated the same way as an industry standard patent on, say, a smartphone radio.
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Apple strongly disagrees. Bruce Sewell, Apple's top lawyer, writes a rebuttal letter to the committee, saying in part, that simply because a "proprietary technology becomes quite popular does not transform it into a 'standard' subject to the same legal constraints as true standards."

In other words, simply because an Apple technology is extremely popular with consumers, doesn't mean Apple has to license that technology to competitors. Apple owns numerous patents regarding nearly all iOS technologies, a fact that Steve Jobs touted when he launched the first iPhone in 2007.

From Sewell's letter:
The capabilities of an iPhone are categorically different from a conventional phone, and result from Apple's ability to bring its traditional innovation in computing to the mobile market. Using an iPhone to take photos, manage a home-finance spreadsheet, play video games, or run countless other applications has nothing to do with standardized protocols. Apple spent billions in research and development to create the iPhone, and third party software developers have spent billions more to develop applications that run on it.
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Though Tim Cook has said that he hates lawsuits -- once calling them "a pain in the ass" -- he has said he will staunchly defend Apple's inventions from copycats.

Steve Jobs was quoted in his biography as threatening to "go thermonuclear" on Google for what he considered the theft of Apple's intellectual property regarding the Android operating system. He pledged to spend every penny Apple had in the bank, a war chest that has since grown to more than $100 billion, fighting a legal battle with the company.

All Things D has the full text of both letters, as well as a much deeper analysis of the legal aspects of the situation.

Article Link: Google's Top Lawyer: Some Apple Inventions are Commercially Essential, Should Be Made Into Standards
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/20/googles-top-lawyer-some-apple-inventions-are-commercially-essential-should-be-made-into-standards/
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Bonfire22

macrumors newbie
Jun 1, 2011
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Translation: we like your innovations and want to use them for free to compete with you.
 
Kaibelf

Kaibelf

Suspended
Apr 29, 2009
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Or, Google can invest the billions that Apple did on R&D instead of demanding to reap the benefits of all that work for free. I know they love to just take, take, take from everyone around them with impunity, but unless they cut a check to everyone who WORKED on all these inventions, they should shut up. Now.
 
JoEw

JoEw

macrumors 68000
Nov 29, 2009
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I don't understand why companies can't just pay up, just like apple should have to if they infringe as well. It's only fair.
 
I

i.mac

macrumors 6502a
Dec 14, 2007
996
247
Google: I'm helpless, cannot inovate. Give me your billion dollar research for pennies. It is only fair to me... and the consumer of course...

Apple: up your nose with a rubber hose.
 
dukebound85

dukebound85

macrumors Core
Jul 17, 2005
19,131
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5045 feet above sea level
I see both sides

Though, things like multitouch should be a standard....as what other way should there be to operate a touch device?

Same with a grid layout

These are all imo, obvious implementations of a touch screen device
 
uknowimright

uknowimright

macrumors 6502a
Dec 30, 2011
812
416
Google is suggesting that if Apple is going to get BS patents that are essential they should be able to be licensed, instead of acting like the selfish child on the playground
 
I

i.mac

macrumors 6502a
Dec 14, 2007
996
247
uknowimright said:
Google is suggesting that if Apple is going to get BS patents that are essential they should be able to be licensed, instead of acting like the selfish child on the playground
Click to expand...

Where are the negative votes? This is, for example, an obvious troll that should be voted negative.
 
U

unlimitedx

macrumors 6502a
Jun 15, 2010
635
0
dukebound85 said:
I see both sides

Though, things like multitouch should be a standard....as what other way should there be to operate a touch device?

Same with a grid layout

These are all imo, obvious implementations of a touch screen device
Click to expand...

hindsight is always 20/20.
 
DavidLeblond

DavidLeblond

macrumors 68020
Jan 6, 2004
2,323
600
Raleigh, NC
Apple didn't invent the smartphone. If these innovations were "essential" to smartphones, wouldn't others have thought of them before Apple did?
 
C

codyc815

macrumors member
Jan 7, 2009
68
1
Kaibelf said:
Or, Google can invest the billions that Apple did on R&D instead of demanding to reap the benefits of all that work for free. I know they love to just take, take, take from everyone around them with impunity, but unless they cut a check to everyone who WORKED on all these inventions, they should shut up. Now.
Click to expand...

I think I read somewhere that Apple invests way less in R&D than other companies. They focus on a single product and make it amazing, as opposed to spreading it out among tons of different products. You can throw all the money in the world into R&D, but if you don't use it properly, it goes to waste.
 
uknowimright

uknowimright

macrumors 6502a
Dec 30, 2011
812
416
DavidLeblond said:
Apple didn't invent the smartphone. If these innovations were "essential" to smartphones, wouldn't others have thought of them before Apple did?
Click to expand...

a lot of it was used previously, just no one was douchey enough to patent a lot of essential stuff as Apple is
 
Swift

Swift

macrumors 68000
Feb 18, 2003
1,828
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Los Angeles
In other words also

We saw something we like, so we used it. If you want to acknowledge patents, or any kind of intellectual property, which our bosses do not, because it costs money and doesn't sell ads -- then make government commandeer the things we want to copy.

So, what might end this whole thing the Tim Cook way is for Google to pay for licensing of what they now infringe on.

Steve, or any CEO, makes chess moves. Patents that are necessary for the network to work correctly are FRAND. Mandatory licensing.
 
O

outphase

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2009
1,291
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Parts Unknown
uknowimright said:
a lot of it was used previously, just no one was douchey enough to patent a lot of essential stuff as Apple is
Click to expand...

If it was used previously in the way Apple describes in the patent claims, it would have been rejected during examination of the patent application. You don't just get a patent just because.
 
ardent73

ardent73

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2010
156
61
Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

qCzar said:
Is Google suggesting they, and others, can't compete without infringing or using Apples patents?
Click to expand...

Yep, Google should shut down, sell everything and distribute it to the shareholders. :D
 
G

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,102
2,677
dukebound85 said:
I see both sides

Though, things like multitouch should be a standard....as what other way should there be to operate a touch device?

Same with a grid layout

These are all imo, obvious implementations of a touch screen device
Click to expand...

I disagree. There were touch screen implementations before the iPhone. Apple found a way to do it on the iPhone that they felt was better. There are plenty of ways to do it and most companies are going their own path. If you don't want an Apple product you don't have to buy them. The idea is simple. Apple hatters hate Apple really secretly love them.
 
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