Apple Awarded Patent That Lets Users Share Content With Others While on Hold

[macsmurf]

The market DOES reward innovation—which is why the patent office MUST exist. Otherwise we'll by default always reward the bigger, established guys because they'll always have the innovation—since they always have the bigger, established resources to steal and build.

With the patent office, yeah theres some gaming going on, but there's a strong chance the little guy or the original guy can possibly hold claim to ideas and then build them.

With so many patents in circulation the little guy with the novel idea will be forced to pay steep license fees to current patent holders, regardless of whether those patents will actually hold up in court. The only other option would be to defend against the lawsuits which will cost him ~1 million USD a pop.

Where is the reward then? Software patents simply don't work.

 

[macUser2007]

Wow. You're incredibly rude and your comment is demeaning. Why are you so passionate about the USPTO that you have to insult them? ... If you don't like the patent don't use it. ...
...

Wow! You are so woefully ignorant of how the USPTO works and what the nature of a software patent is, or why companies like Apple apply for them, even when it is absolutely clear that they will not stand up to a serious challenge.

Am I passionate? Not really, since I can't personally do much about it. But I do know a bit about it.

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1. Patent Examiners are well paid.
2. It's quite difficult to become a patent examiner.
3. You don't know what you're even talking about. Do you even know the relevant law on patents?
...

If you consider toping out at $150k, at the highest pay-grade, "well paid," you have no clue what "well paid" means, anymore than you know the meaning of whatever "the relevant law on patents" is....

 

[6749974]

With so many patents in circulation the little guy with the novel idea will be forced to pay steep license fees to current patent holders, regardless of whether those patents will actually hold up in court. The only other option would be to defend against the lawsuits which will cost him ~1 million USD a pop.

Where is the reward then? Software patents simply don't work.

You said "Software patents simply don't work." Please give a good example that is representative of how software patents don't work for the majority of patent owners?

I agree that the rate of software innovation is changing things, and so the patent office needs to evaluate how to adapt. But that's a separate matter from "they don't work. Let's get rid of em. (paraphrasing)"

The situation isn't as dire as you or many suggest. The sky isn't falling.

Regarding cost: patents are a capital investment. Just one of the many financial burdens of entrepreneurship. That's why there are Venture Capitalists. Offices and computers and engineer labor isn't free. It takes money to make money, and people have been creating products since the beginning of time. I don't see business coming to a halt these days.

You can see prices here. Once you've started a business, hired engineers, and gone through the trouble of inventing something that is patentable the fees aren't what worry you. Protecting your capital investment does! It's the sharks that are scary, not the patent office.

 

[RobertMartens]

Awesome feature that would be very helpful for when you need to put someone on hold and don't want them to hang up.

When I put people on hold I never want to hang up on them. Sometimes I do, but not on purpose.

 

[juanmanas]

nothing new...samsung could do that and plus share pictures or music by having two phones touch each other.

And Bump app could do that on IOS when Samsung was still making flip phones...

 

[captain kaos]

Can't say i want the other person on the line to wander through my contacts, photos etc.

 

[Moccasin]

[/COLOR]

With so many patents in circulation the little guy with the novel idea will be forced to pay steep license fees to current patent holders, regardless of whether those patents will actually hold up in court. The only other option would be to defend against the lawsuits which will cost him ~1 million USD a pop.i

Where is the reward then? Software patents simply don't work.

Of course if its the other way around, the patent system protects the small innovators when they come up with a good idea. Either big companies pay them to licence their technology/idea or else pay big money to buy the rights. Many of Apple's acquisitions have been of such companies.

Yes some companies will try to avoid paying but James Dyson (amongst others) show that they too can be brought into line and penalised for ignoring patents.

 

[doelcm82]

At first glance I thought this was dumb. It's easy enough to share pictures with another iPhone user, whether they are on hold or not.

I hardly ever put anyone on hold, so I don't know if it's useful for me. But it could be useful for people or organizations that get a lot of calls.

If you're calling your local community service organization to find out the date and time of the next Lesbian Rap Group meeting or Christian Singles mixer, and the agent has to put you on hold, you can view the upcoming events in the calendar or look at pictures of Christian Singles or Lesbian Rappers while you wait. You might even find the information you were calling about.

 

[Iconoclysm]

You know what else works. Having patience until the party can resume the call. Or call back.

Also I've heard that iMessage, WhatsApp, Email and other such apps can send pictures, video, audio, etc while you're not only on hold - but during the call as well. AMAZING!

And I can send a playlist to a friend by pressing a button - without having to tap two phones together. AMAZING!

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nothing new...samsung could do that and plus share pictures or music by having two phones touch each other.

Right, because I'm always on a phone call with a guy who is 5 feet away from me.

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Why is this "patent" awarded?

The USPTO is basically a joke nowadays, filled with little nerds who couldn't get a high paying job out of school, so they try to curry favors by approving such nonsense in the hope that after a few of these approvals they can make the jump to a corporation like Apple.

And yes, "patents" like this (many would actually fail in court) are stifling innovation and Apple has become one of the worst patent trolls.

I know 10 patent examiners. Every single one of them is high paid, works from anywhere they want to work, and have no desires to leave and work for any other company because they have a sweet deal. Also, you have no idea what a patent troll is so please just stop.

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If you consider toping out at $150k, at the highest pay-grade, "well paid," you have no clue what "well paid" means, anymore than you know the meaning of whatever "the relevant law on patents" is....

$150k with the ability to live and work anywhere within the US? Think about it for a little while since you obviously are missing something here.

 

[ridwan47]

iCame
iSaw
iCopied
iPatented
iSued

 

[Michael CM1]

"Your call is very important to us. Pay no attention to the fact that we didn't hire more people to keep you from waiting 20 minutes to talk to a person who will inform you that you have called the wrong number and transfer you to another department to wait another 20 minutes." Cue muzak.

 

[macUser2007]

...

I know 10 patent examiners. Every single one of them is high paid, works from anywhere they want to work, and have no desires to leave and work for any other company because they have a sweet deal. Also, you have no idea what a patent troll is so please just stop.

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$150k with the ability to live and work anywhere within the US? Think about it for a little while since you obviously are missing something here.

Dude, 10, really?!!!

And yeah, I am thinking you don't know a single one: they start at the low $40k, very few make it to the $150k I mentioned.

BTW, they DO have all sorts of desires [sic].... Including landing a job in the private sector.

 

[pirg]

Its amazing how people think this patent is akin to putting someone on hold and then texting them.

I mean the information is right there in the first post, really no excuse for getting it that wrong.

But then again, downplaying everything apple does is a hobby here on macrumors for many.

 

[galrito]

Or another example: do your homework and I'll copy it and turn it as mine instead of yours. Happy?

I think what we're talking about here is copying features that already are on the market and in that case, you would only copy it after the teacher graded the original homework, so everybody knew the homework was not your own.

But if you copied the homework before the teacher knew about the original, that is something else, it's industrial espionage, not patent infringement.

 

[macs4nw]

Translation: "Samsung and Apple prepare for next patent suit"

No way! ANDROID users get to sidle-up and touch! That's a whole different kettle of fish!

 

[APlotdevice]

nothing new...samsung could do that and plus share pictures or music by having two phones touch each other.

If you are talking to someone over the phone, chances are they are not in physical range for you to bump their phone.

 

[pirg]

If you are talking to someone over the phone, chances are they are not in physical range for you to bump their phone.

Dont you know Android users always have special use cases?

After all who else gets 8 of their friends together at a party and group plays the same song?! (which incidentally is just a run of the mill Samsung rip-off of the MusicPool app. Surprised they didn't call it SmusicPool) Only Android users.

 

[0x0x0x0]

The escalator should have never been patented because it just automatically did what you do manually. Seriously. Does anyone actually understand what utility means?

There's a difference between innovation and simple automation, and that difference appears to be lost on the USPTO... Oh, and there's a difference between an escalator and saving you from a couple of taps...

 

[Daze & Confuse]

More like protect ideas from being stolen from someone else...

No! That's exactly what's wrong with the patent system!

People are patenting ideas, or concepts, or approaches! They should be patenting products. They have no intention, or even ability, to turn their ideas into any form of reality, but are patenting in order to simply stop others from doing it, or worse extract money from the people who actually put their idea into practice.

Let's say I have the idea for an anti-gravity drive.

I patent the concept (i.e. idea ) of 'a device for producing an equal and opposite force to any gravitational field applied to it'.

Now what? I've basically got no clue how to do this, but I'm essentially stopping people who can make an anti-gravity drive from doing so, as they know I'll just sue them the second I feel they're rich enough.

How is the patent system helping in that case?

Do you think the patent for the telephone was 'a way of speaking to someone else over long distances', or the actual technology behind making a telephone call?

In this case, if Apple had a new way of actually sending data that was unique then yes, I can see the use of a patent. But here they've simply patented a situation in which you might want to automatically send data. It's essentially patenting doing something if something else happens! An automatic reaction to an event! IF x THEN send data.

x can be literally millions of things.

x = Message failed to arrive (Text return receipt.)

x = User left office (Geofencing.)

x = User changes password (Your password's been reset email.)

x = Someone's on hold, send them a picture? Oh, let's patent that!

Can you really not see how ridiculous this is becoming?

Is Apple's idea clever? Yes.

Is it neat? Yes.

Is it what the patent system is there for? Absolutely not!

Apple is not alone in this. It is an endemic problem. But people need to realise that Apple is a huge company, and it does a lot of things - some great, some good, some bad. This is bad.

We need to be adults and realise that just because we like Apple as a whole and the great stuff it does, we don't have to defend everything it does.

We can hate the bad stuff Apple does and still be an Apple supporter.

In fact, if you truly want Apple to continue to improve as a company, that's exactly what you should do.

 

[cmChimera]

If you consider toping out at $150k, at the highest pay-grade, "well paid," you have no clue what "well paid" means, anymore than you know the meaning of whatever "the relevant law on patents" is....

If you consider 150k to be a low paying job then I can't save you from ignorance.

How about you give me the legal reasoning as to why this should not be patentable?

There's a difference between innovation and simple automation, and that difference appears to be lost on the USPTO... Oh, and there's a difference between an escalator and saving you from a couple of taps...

Please tell me the difference between saving you a few steps and saving you a few steps. Also, you clearly do not understand the patent. You cannot send someone the ability to browse photos. You can send them an mms, but you're missing the point. The automation here allows the person putting someone on hold to be able to, oh you know, do other things WHILE the other person browses.

 

[gibsona]

You might find it hard to believe, but something similar was just recently litigated in England in SAS v WPL.

This is an excellent example of how the European Software Directive (91/250/ECC) actually prevents stupid protectionism and allows both competition and innovation. The US should take a look at doing something similar.

 

[gnasher729]

Cool story bro. Now, name even one person who has used that feature.

There are these guys in the Samsung adverts, but I wouldn't know their names. Very likely someone in the Samsung test department as well, at least I'd hope so. So you really can't say truthfully that _nobody_ uses these features.

 

[Renzatic]

You said "Software patents simply don't work." Please give a good example that is representative of how software patents don't work for the majority of patent owners?

Oh, they work great for the patent owners. It's everyone else who suffers.

The problem with software patents is they're generally too broad, too vague, and too loose, to the point that companies are able to patent the end result rather than the implementation. If things get any worse, it'll eventually come to the point where someone with a good idea can't just sit down in their garage and write code, because some random company or patent troll probably has some function they're gonna end up using patented. It'll be too potentially expensive to try.

Software patents hurt innovation far more than protect it.

 

[gnasher729]

nothing new...samsung could do that and plus share pictures or music by having two phones touch each other.

I rarely get phone calls from people close enough so that the phones can touch.

 

[iThinkIt]

i dislike being on hold.. but I know that its important to many people...