Apple Files Patent Infringement Suit Over 'Knock-Off' Power Adapters

[lindskogaren]

That phrase made me think...and I couldn't come up with one original thing that Sweden is know for except rotten fermented fish.

I'm from Sweden and find that a bit.. underwhelming . I'm not sure that all are swedish (and don't have time to check), but I'll give it a go: Dynamite? The wrench? First electified railway? Pacemaker? The nobel prize? IKEA? Ball baerings? Three point belts? Turbo for personal vehicles (Saab 99.. what a car!).. I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I can't think of right now as well

 

[fixyourthinking]

These have been on eBay for about a year and a half

This same seller under DOZENS of eBay IDs but originating from eReplacements has been selling these for about a year and a half on eBay.

They TRIED to make the claim to me that it was legal to buy the magsafe portion of the cord as a part from an Apple parts supplier then rejigger it onto an AC adapter.

This company doesn't just sell adapters that look like Apple's adapters - they sell all sorts of shapes and colors of adapters with magsafe adapters on them.

They seem to sell around 50-100 a week just through eBay.

Look at eBay seller ID sib auctions

 

[cmaier]

this is a DESIGN patent covering the appearance of the adapter, not a UTILITY patent covering the magnetic connector.

If xerox was litigation happy it's stockholders may have made money and xerox, not apple, may have been a force in something other than copiers.

With all due respect, this is a baseless statement.

Magnetic plugs have been around for a while, so unless Apple has contributed something unique and integral, it is not clear that it will survive a challange.

But Apple relies on the fact, that this is probably not worth the cost of litigation to anyone, so nobody has bothered to do it.

I love Apple's designs, but Apple is a terror to smaller companies. And that's not so good for innovation.

If Xerox was as litigation-happy, and had filed a suit against Apple for ripping off its Star interface immediately, before the statute of limitation ran out, there is a good chance, that there wouldn't be Apple today, and the face of personal computing may be rather different. We all would have lost.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

So Apple isn't allowing third parties to make a power adapter for their notebooks? That's absolutely ridiculous.

i agree, Apple is using the magsafe design (and patent) to halt any third party power adapter products from coming to market. sad because Apple used to have a vibrant line of products made for its laptops in the past by third party companies.

also. its just wacky because Apple ought to license and make money from it like it does ipod/iphone accessories.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

Yes, there would. People always want to buy **** as cheap as possible.

Case in point vvv

I believe in true cost along with a marginal percentage of profit to sustain the company. on the other hand charges beyond marginal profits. R&D cost maybe however the MagSafe idea has been used by other companies in other Nations on other products for years, so it's not an original only to put it to use on a laptop. The R&D cost of the MagSafe was paid for years ago and it has been highly reported on the insane amount of markup on some products.

It is about fair cost, comes across as a crack dealer getting you hooked for less or free then sticking it to you for refills. Insane.

 

[cmaier]

i agree, Apple is using the magsafe design (and patent) to halt any third party power adapter products from coming to market. sad because Apple used to have a vibrant line of products made for its laptops in the past by third party companies.

also. its just wacky because Apple ought to license and make money from it like it does ipod/iphone accessories.

Argh. Th issue is that they made an EXACT COPY. not that it uses MagSafe.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

also. its just wacky because Apple ought to license and make money from it like it does ipod/iphone accessories.

Compare how charges double for its in-ear plugs with mic when compared to other manufacturers. And do not give me the sound quality argument, if you want sound quality then ear plugs with compressed audio files and on a mobile device is the last thing you should be listening to.

 

[cmaier]

Compare how charges double for its in-ear plugs with mic when compared to other manufacturers. And do not give me the sound quality argument, if you want sound quality then ear plugs with compressed audio files and on a mobile device is the last thing you should be listening to.

That's a dumb argument. Just because lossy compression isn't perfect (I'll ignore the fact that some people, me included, use lossless compression) doesn't mean you should use arbitrarily crappy sounding headphones so your sound is even worse.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

Argh. Th issue is that they made an EXACT COPY. not that it uses MagSafe.

All this company has to do is move operations to China or India and they will be safe. Sell online and all can do is try to seek litigation via China or India's court system. Before you answer, consider the amount of knockoff that China and India produce and sell, and if you cannot sell your product then you would not be in the business of producing. So they have been very successful doing it for decades.

I say stick it to so they can lower they prices of they accessories that are produced in China.

 

[cmaier]

All this company has to do is move operations to China or India and they will be safe. Sell online and all can do is try to seek litigation via China or India's court system. Before you answer, consider the amount of knockoff that China and India produce and sell, and if you cannot sell your product then you would not be in the business of producing. So they have been very successful doing it for decades.

I say stick it to so they can lower they prices of they accessories that are produced in China.

You are wrong, again. No matter where they make it, they cannot import it into the US (the law is that you cannot make, use, sell, offer to sell or import into the US.) I'm sure they ARE made in China. In any case they can sue in the US in a federal district court or pursue an ITC action to have them seized at the border.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

That's a dumb argument. Just because lossy compression isn't perfect (I'll ignore the fact that some people, me included, use lossless compression) doesn't mean you should use arbitrarily crappy sounding headphones so your sound is even worse.

It has been scientifically proven that the human ear cannot hear certain frequencies beyond a certain level. To argue otherwise is just plain nonsense, some ppl might "believe" they hear the additional frequencies, however it's all FUD. The human ear is not designed to hear frequencies that are in a physically close proximity as in ear-plugs, in-ear options. Do not buy into the marketing, yes I will agree some audio headphones, plus are better when compared to others however the difference will not be noticed by most because of the encoding and the decoding process.

When another company can produce better head-phones doe less then apply, yet apple can still charge an insane amount for its low to medium level audio plus is retarded. Marketing and brainwashing by and its Fan-boys.

Everything makes is not great, they have had misses as well.

 

[*LTD*]

*sigh* Once again, I'm forced to do your dirty work for you. lol

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/top_10_apple_products_which_flopped.php

Microsoft surely isn't alone in hit and miss products there, bub.

That's a pretty weak list. LOL, I don't think anyone's even heard of half the items on there, and some of those items were way ahead of their time. The exceptions prove the rule.

And The ROKR wasn't Apple. It was (surprise, surprise!) Motorola. Apple merely provided an application to run on it. And Steve despised it from day one, during its intro.

The 25th Anniversary Mac was just a prestige product.

If Xerox was as litigation-happy, and had filed a suit against Apple for ripping off its Star interface immediately, before the statute of limitation ran out, there is a good chance, that there wouldn't be Apple today, and the face of personal computing may be rather different. We all would have lost.

If.

And IF my mother had wheels, I'd be a wagon.

 

[!¡ V ¡!]

You are wrong, again. No matter where they make it, they cannot import it into the US (the law is that you cannot make, use, sell, offer to sell or import into the US.) I'm sure they ARE made in China. In any case they can sue in the US in a federal district court or pursue an ITC action to have them seized at the border.

So you are saying if I buy something from a Chinese website and they mail it to me in an unmarked parcel that it will be confiscated. Hmm...yeah the system is not overloaded at all, like the postal service cares if the adapter is made by or some 3rd party company. They job is to get the mail to its destination not to play judge and jury.

Your comment is of a Nation run by Big Brother, however we all know no organization can hold it all together at all times. Look at and the many rumour sites.

 

[cmaier]

It has been scientifically proven that the human ear cannot hear certain frequencies beyond a certain level. To argue otherwise is just plain nonsense, some ppl might "believe" they hear the additional frequencies, however it's all FUD. The human ear is not designed to hear frequencies that are in a physically close proximity as in ear-plugs, in-ear options. Do not buy into the marketing, yes I will agree some audio headphones, plus are better when compared to others however the difference will not be noticed by most because of the encoding and the decoding process.

When another company can produce better head-phones doe less then apply, yet apple can still charge an insane amount for its low to medium level audio plus is retarded. Marketing and brainwashing by and its Fan-boys.

So you are saying all earphones sound the same? That could be the dumbest thing I've heard this week.

Depending on age, people can hear frequencies of approximately 20 to 20khz. Many headphones cover a much smaller range. Many don't cover therange linearly, and thus distort the sound by having some frequencies louder than others. Many don't have good isolation from outside sound or between channels.

The Internet sucks because everyone thinks hey are entitled to opine on matters about which they know nothing.

 

[cmaier]

So you are saying if I buy something from a Chinese website and they mail it to me in an unmarked parcel that it will be confiscated. Hmm...yeah the system is not overloaded at all, like the postal service cares if the adapter is made by or some 3rd party company. They job is to get the mail to its destination not to play judge and jury.

Your comment is of a Nation run by Big Brother, however we all know no organization can hold it all together at all times. Look at and the many rumour sites.

you really think most foreign products enter the US by mail? Really? Do you have any idea how commerce works?

Your grammar is attrocious so I don't understand your Big Brother comment.

Look, all this company has to do is make their adapter NOT LOOK lik the patented apple adapter. It's no that hard. The reason they are making it look the same is to trick the consumer, so I don't understand why you are defeding them. If they made it a black rectangular brick they'd have no problem.

 

[*LTD*]

You've obviously never used NeXTStep or Openstep, let alone betas of both that had countless numbers of features both Apple and Microsoft stole from NeXT.

As I recall, Apple bought NeXT.

 

[galstaph]

Looks like the adapters in question have been removed from the site, all I can see are the iBook/PBG4 adapters (I've had to buy one of these).

 

[Berio]

i agree, Apple is using the magsafe design (and patent) to halt any third party power adapter products from coming to market.

please point out where the magsafe is mentioned in the context of this suit....?

this is about something else.
read the article.

 

[JAT]

2. I find a macbook in a landfill. I sign nothing, and pay nothing. How then am I entering into a license? By standing near it?

It's a User agreement. Usage is the key, legal departments figured that out long ago. Everything else you said was basically theft, it seems you didn't learn anything from your bad IP experience.

That's total BS. There's nothing wrong with the current power adapters. Apple had a design problem with the first ones, admitted it, and replaced them at no charge.

Yes, there is. The tiny little crap wires are a bad idea. Period. This is pretty much the only (ok, the AppleTV, too) Apple product I think is crap. The magsafe is wonderful; but the wire running into it, and specifically the complete lack of any sort of strain relief for it is asinine.

You've obviously never used NeXTStep or Openstep, let alone betas of both that had countless numbers of features both Apple and Microsoft stole from NeXT.

Apple did not have to steal from NeXT, they bought it. Last I checked, a purchase is a legitimate business transaction.



And please, that list? What a joke. How many features did either Apple or M$ "steal" first from other developers? If we have to get into who did it first, let's go to actual firsts.

A few highlights:
"The Forward button"?? LMAO. Did they steal the color blue, too?

The Control Panel? How did Apple not have them all "in one place" in 1985? Rizzo might want to check history a bit better, maybe he thinks Apple started in 2000.

Terminal? OSX is based on Unix. Unix predates Windows, or even DOS. Command line was simply the interface at first, I don't see how leaving it in there is something new to be stolen. And since the interface is now gui, there has to be a gui access to it, nobody stole that from anybody.

Full Exchange 2007 support?? Apple was the FIRST to release this (in the iPhone), how is that 2nd? M$ couldn't be bothered to release an update to their current software at the time. And frankly, using a new piece of software is not something that can be stolen, it's just a necessity of doing business if you want to match up to that software. M$ wants people to use the new 2007 features, other companies are supposed to make compatible products. It's like saying the 2nd company ever to make a Windows-compatible piece of software "stole" the idea to have it run on Windows from the first such company.

There is one real feature that Apple stole from M$, and that is Alt-Tab application switching, which admittedly is on that list. And I'm glad they did, it is one thing that M$ made that is actually easy to use. (ie: they didn't make it Alt-Shift-F7 or something no one would use) Although Apple introduced one point that I wish M$ would steal back: Command-~ goes backwards through the list. In M$'s version you have to use Alt-Shift-Tab, which is like playing Twister.

One more they should steal from M$, which M$ stole from them first, but improved....
Window resizing from any side.

 

[JAT]

It has been scientifically proven that the human ear cannot hear certain frequencies beyond a certain level. To argue otherwise is just plain nonsense, some ppl might "believe" they hear the additional frequencies, however it's all FUD. The human ear is not designed to hear frequencies that are in a physically close proximity as in ear-plugs, in-ear options. Do not buy into the marketing, yes I will agree some audio headphones, plus are better when compared to others however the difference will not be noticed by most because of the encoding and the decoding process.

You know absolutely nothing about hearing, based on this post. While there are hints of truth in there, your understanding is poor, to say the least.

 

[Berio]

I believe in true cost along with a marginal percentage of profit to sustain the company.

i do not know where you live, but if you live in a capitalist country like US, UK, France etc, your "beliefs" diverge from those of your economy. so-called 'true cost' is not related to the retail price. the price is determined by what people are prepared to pay. seems people are prepared to pay a lot when it comes to apple. that is why the company os doing well.

R&D cost maybe however the MagSafe idea has been used by other companies

how is the magsafe related to this thread? this is about a design patent

It is about fair cost,

'what' is about fair cost???

apple comes across as a crack dealer getting you hooked for less or free then sticking it to you for refills. Insane.

not a bad analogy, i agree with you, but in today's world there is nothing 'insane' about that, you may not like it but that is reality. people with money buy like to buy expensive, well-designed stuff, and will pay lots for it. makes them feel exclusive. apple tends to their needs.

 

[JAT]

That's a pretty weak list. LOL, I don't think anyone's even heard of half the items on there, and some of those items were way ahead of their time. The exceptions prove the rule.

I've heard of all of them except #9. And wanted to get many of them. I'm a lifer.

And the Apple Portable should not be on the list. It didn't have the longest life, but it was the first real portable PC. I think maybe portable PCs are still around. Let me check....yep, it looks like laptops are still used occasionally around the world.

 

[Berio]

Compare how apple charges double for its in-ear plugs with mic when compared to other manufacturers.

it's called business.
that is how they make a profit.
they create a brand which is desirable, then charge lots for it.
nobody is forcing you to participate in this game.
are you going to start complaining that Ferrari's cars are too expensive?
that the price is not related to 'true cost'?
i suppose you don't, because you do not drive a Ferrari (i presume ;-)
so if apple is too expensive for you, use stuff by another company.
there is lots of cheaper -sometimes better - stuff out there.

 

[cmaier]

I've heard of all of them except #9. And wanted to get many of them. I'm a lifer.

And the Apple Portable should not be on the list. It didn't have the longest life, but it was the first real portable PC. I think maybe portable PCs are still around. Let me check....yep, it looks like laptops are still used occasionally around the world.

Didn't Osborne beat em?

 

[Berio]

When another company can produce better head-phones doe less then apply, yet apple can still charge an insane amount for its low to medium level audio plus is retarded. Marketing and brainwashing by and its Fan-boys.

yes, again, that is what clever branding and marketing are about. fanboys were not born fanboys, their endless loyalty to this (or any other) corporation was created by the corporation's marketing and branding strategies. that is business. you seem to think someone owes you something, that you have a 'right' to buy things cheaper than they choose to sell them for. why?

personally i agree that their stuff is expensive, often too expensive for me, that however does not make them a 'bad' company.
apple seems to have 2 aims: make modern, desirable hw and sw, and make lots of money.
they seem pretty good at both these tasks

Everything makes is not great, they have had misses as well.

how is this statement related to your points about the cost of their products?