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Apple Files Lawsuit Against HTC Over Alleged iPhone Patent Infringement
- Thread starter Teh Don Ditty
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I think apple is not going to go after ms because the know that it would case ms to sue in return and ms patents can do more damage to apple that some if the chicken crap apples can do.
On the iPhone blog the have a nice graphic showing who is suing who in the smart phone market. Microsoft and palm are not among the makers in the suing feast. Now the rest of the big names are suing like crazy.
Ms also has stated if anyone goes after one of their parnters for windows mobile the will get involved. Apple law suit is aim almost sololy at the android phone so ms will stay out of it.
Well, the GPL is just legal clauses too.
If all you want is public dedication of an invention, just publish everything about it (Internet works fine - be sure to post a date on it).
If you want to "infect" products the way some open source licenses do, you'll need your own patent and you'll have to try some legal clauses in your license.
Sounds funny, but that's how lawyers talk about it. Depending on the license, by including open source in your project you may have obligations to do all sorts of things with your own I.P. that you hadn't intended (such as releasing the source code to the proprietary stuff you wrote yourself that is unrelated to the open source components, and having the open source license attach to that other code).
Because MS does not manufacture phones. HTC does. It makes about as much sense as Apple suing Intel instead of Psystar. You sue the person who does the infringing. Going after the enabler is much tougher - thats why there isn't a real good track record of Smith and Wesson et al on cases of murder.
A couple of the phones named in the suit are Windows Mobile devices.
You don't need to manufacture phones to infringe. When you make, use, sell, offer-to sell, or import a component of an infringing article, where your component has no substantial noninfringing use and where it is intended for use in infringing articles, you are just as liable as the manufacturer of the infringing article. It's called contributory infringement. If you induce or encourage the manufacturer to infringe (by providing them with the software, and telling them how to use it) it's called inducement, and it is also subject to the same liability.
I know that - I kinda implied that when I said "Going after the enabler is much tougher - thats why there isn't a real good track record of Smith and Wesson et al on cases of murder."
I was being a bit snide, but I was not including inducement cases. Typically S&W executives do not tell people to buy their guns to murder people... I may not have been clear though...
Google and MS are not on the block here because Apple doesn't feel either that they are inducing or that it's not worth it.
I disagree. Here's the reason:
1)MS - MS can counter with far more fundamental and damaging patents.
2) Google - google doesn't sell android, and damages are typically determined by figuring out what google would have been willing to pay in a hypothetical licensing negotiation. Hypothetical: how much would google be willing to pay to license apple's patents so that it could turn around and give away android? Answer: not much. Result: apple probably couldn't get much, or any, money from google.
Second point: HTC is far weaker a target. If Apple wins there, Apple has claim constructions that are then useable against subsequent targets, as well as the ability to say "these patents were tested in court, and held valid."
That's something that I cannot comment on since I don't know the extent of Microsoft's patents. I do know that they threatened patents suits before regarding Linux and never acted on them.
That goes along with the part where I said "that it's not worth it".
I agree there. HTC is a better target since Apple can show quite readily that it makes a profit off what it perceives as patent violations. Strength or weakness doesn't factor as much - HTC probably annoyed Apple enough to where they said "get it on". Apple probably doesn't see much of a downside based on how many clones are out there.
Personally I don't think that Apple cares about Google or MS. MS is hardly a smart phone player to Apple and Android has no profits to go after.
The reason why Apple went after HTC is simple: they're the easiest target. Apple wouldn't have DARED at this time go after LG, Nokia, Samsung or Sony Ericsson, because these companies are huge and could easily fight back against Apple.
You'd be surprised how often companies sue Samsung for patent infringement (and how often they win - often Samsung just settles).
Necessary action
I don't know about the particulars of the patents allegedly being copied, but a patent is a patent, meant to protect any invention and its inventor(s) from just this sort of action. If Apple was savvy enough to jump in and patent these inventions then they must do what they are doing. If in turn they are guilty of the same thing with some other company's patent, then they should be made to account for that. Considering the enormous market for new electronics and all their apps, the competition is always going to be cutthroat and the retaliation for infringement swift and furious. I'm sure this is one reason why Apple is sitting on its enormous profits, and it's one reason why Cramer says they are the "smartest company in the world". In my opinion their products are far superior to just about everything out there, and they have to stand guard.
I don't know about the particulars of the patents allegedly being copied, but a patent is a patent, meant to protect any invention and its inventor(s) from just this sort of action. If Apple was savvy enough to jump in and patent these inventions then they must do what they are doing. If in turn they are guilty of the same thing with some other company's patent, then they should be made to account for that. Considering the enormous market for new electronics and all their apps, the competition is always going to be cutthroat and the retaliation for infringement swift and furious. I'm sure this is one reason why Apple is sitting on its enormous profits, and it's one reason why Cramer says they are the "smartest company in the world". In my opinion their products are far superior to just about everything out there, and they have to stand guard.