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The biggest patent troll on the planet is "lawyering up" to defend itself against other patent trolls. This could be entertaining if it wasn't so sad and absurd.

Apple isn't NEARLY the patent troll that other companies are. There are some around now that only make money via patent trolling.
 
Patent Office

Hopefully this whole thing will result in everyone realizing how absolutely ridiculous the current state of Patent law is, and trigger some kind of patent reform initiative.

Tony

I think that instead of suing the companies they should sue the patent office, aren't they the ones that issue patents that infringe on ones they have already issued to other companies?
 
From what I understand Apple already has the best lawyers in the game.

It's time for major reform in patenting as we know. Residually, the consumer pays for all of this legal infighting.

Acquiring patents in order to sue companies shouldn't be a viable business model, it serves no good purpose.
 
That device is a concept device or prototype. Google were going with whatever the stye was *at the time*.
There was nothing like the iPhone on the market before the iPhone was introduced. It completely changed the smartphone market (which is cool, because whether someone likes Apple or not, they get to enjoy smartphones we weren't even imagining back before its introduction). It is much more than icons on a grid—it is a whole user experience defined in hardware, software, and the way you interact with the device. Google's original Android prototypes were more like RIM knockoffs and once iOS came to market they switched gears to release something which attempts to jump directly into the new experience created by iOS. I don't blame them—it worked out well—but as you pointed out, they're just copying the 'style of the time'.
 
There was nothing like the iPhone on the market before the iPhone was introduced. .....

Google's original Android prototypes were more like RIM knockoffs and once iOS came to market they switched gears to release something which attempts to jump directly into the new experience created by iOS. I don't blame them—it worked out well—but as you pointed out, they're just copying the 'style of the time'.

Yes, your correct - iPhone did change the smartphone market. Some for the good, others for the worse, IMO.

However, saying that smartphones were unimagative is a bit incorrect and there had been quite a lot of innovation. Just not maybe in the GUI area. The original iPhone didn't have very good software built in , in fact, quite limited. Very limited. You couldn't even install native applications without jail breaking. IMO, it wasn't a smartphone. It was the GUI that was different.

This has gone off topic quite a bit - PM...
 
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There was nothing like the iPhone on the market before the iPhone was introduced. It completely changed the smartphone market (which is cool, because whether someone likes Apple or not, they get to enjoy smartphones we weren't even imagining back before its introduction). It is much more than icons on a grid—it is a whole user experience defined in hardware, software, and the way you interact with the device. Google's original Android prototypes were more like RIM knockoffs and once iOS came to market they switched gears to release something which attempts to jump directly into the new experience created by iOS. I don't blame them—it worked out well—but as you pointed out, they're just copying the 'style of the time'.
BS...
LG Prada was announced in 2006 and released in January 2007.
First capacitive touchscreen phone on the market.
Only sold a million units in 18 months.
Not the smash hit as the iPhone, but to say the iPhone started it is false.
The form factor of the Prada should look familiar.

475px-LG_prada_phone_private_picture.jpg
 
BS...
LG Prada was announced in 2006 and released in January 2007.
First capacitive touchscreen phone on the market.
Only sold a million units in 18 months.
Not the smash hit as the iPhone, but to say the iPhone started it is false.
The form factor of the Prada should look familiar.

475px-LG_prada_phone_private_picture.jpg

lol owned.
 
1. "Patent reform" isn't going to meaningfully change anything. Patents are inherently complicated; there's no way to really simplify them so your secretary can understand them.

2. Patent litigation among corporations isn't like litigation among normal people. Most litigation between large corporations, and especially patent litigation - as weird as this sounds - is just the most efficient way of deciding who owns what and who owes who what.

It works like this. Apple, say, wants to produce a product that works in a certain way. It's possible that something in the product will infringe on someone else's patent, but it's perhaps not clear: (1) that it infringes at all; (2) how much it infringes; and (3) what it should cost to license this if it infringes.

Apple could try to track down patent holders and negotiate licenses with them...and if the patent is obvious, this is what they would do. But if it's at all unclear, it's easier for Apple to just produce its product immediately, start making money, and let the courts sort out who owes what to whom for what. This has the great advantage of producing clarity and a definitive answer. Negotiating close cases without court involvement is in many cases simply a recipe for deadlock.

Obviously, Apple would prefer that no one sue them. But Apple being sued by corp. X is not like you being sued by your neighbor: it's simply a part of how business operates.

3. When compared to other existing patent systems, this system seems to foster the *most* innovation, empirically.
 
The biggest patent troll on the planet is "lawyering up" to defend itself against other patent trolls. This could be entertaining if it wasn't so sad and absurd.

Apple: Taking MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) to a new level.
You know, I used to think you at least had some intelligence behind your hatred. But since you don't even know what "patent troll" means....
That device is a concept device or prototype. Google were going with whatever the stye was *at the time*.


Google needed to show that Android was capable of deploying to whatever style of phone was in fashion at the time. Between the first image and the iPhone, things had changed, Google were merely keeping up with the current fashion.
Uh, stealing specific product ideas (like GUI design) is precisely what patent law is about. (assuming they are patented designs) That's why this and similar lawsuits exist. Are you arguing that it isn't just cause for a lawsuit?
 
Yes, your correct - iPhone did change the smartphone market. Some for the good, others for the worse, IMO.

However, saying that smartphones were unimagative is a bit incorrect and there had been quite a lot of innovation. Just not maybe in the GUI area. The original iPhone didn't have very good software built in , in fact, quite limited. Very limited. You couldn't even install native applications without jail breaking. IMO, it wasn't a smartphone. It was the GUI that was different.

This has gone off topic quite a bit - PM...
Agreed that this has gone a bit off topic.

How has the iPhone negatively changed the smartphone market?

I'll point out that I never said previous phones were unimaginative. I can only assume you were responding to someone else in that regard? I would say that innovation in smartphones had stagnated—it is hard to believe otherwise having used mobile phones since then first hit the consumer market—but there certainly was innovation in the market.

I wouldn't say the original iPhone had no good software build in. What helped it to become so successful was the streamlining of basic smartphone elements into something enjoyable to use (if feature limited compared to other smart phones at the time) and what could be 'killer app' caliber software in the form of iTunes, which leads to what may have been perhaps its biggest advantage. Apple has built up a platform like this before, and consumers have consistently voted with their wallets as to what they prefer. Usability is something that was lost to this industry, but that's changing. (I would also like to point out that this practice, starting with a basic platform and developing slowly, deliberately, and intelligently, is a successful tactic in almost any sort of venture).

It was a smartphone. But I see what you mean.

BS...
LG Prada was announced in 2006 and released in January 2007.
First capacitive touchscreen phone on the market.
Only sold a million units in 18 months.
Not the smash hit as the iPhone, but to say the iPhone started it is false.
The form factor of the Prada should look familiar.
Who's talking exclusively about the form factor? Did you even bother reading what I originally wrote? You might as well dig up a Handspring Visor (Palm OS) and vomit that up as proof that someone did it before the iPhone. I'm not going to bother writing more because I don't think I really need to clarify what I wrote before.
 
Uh, stealing specific product ideas (like GUI design) is precisely what patent law is about. (assuming they are patented designs) That's why this and similar lawsuits exist. Are you arguing that it isn't just cause for a lawsuit?

Taking your example of GUI design together with the 3 images that were posted before ; like I said:
* lining up a load of application icons in a grid layout isn't new.
* having applications on a quick launch bar also isn't new.
* having the above on ONE screen isn't new.

So, what are Apple going to sue for? It has been done previously ( for example, on the SE800/9xx ). Of course, Apple could try suing for patent infrigment, but I don't it would get very far.



Agreed that this has gone a bit off topic.
I'll point out that I never said previous phones were unimaginative. I can only assume you were responding to someone else in that regard? I would say that innovation in smartphones had stagnated—it is hard to believe otherwise having used mobile phones since then first hit the consumer market—but there certainly was innovation in the market.

I probably mis-read your message then, sorry.

It was a smartphone. But I see what you mean.
The definition of smartphone now varies, especially from location to location ( i.e., Europe vs US ). It would help to define 'what is a smartphone'.

The traditional definition was "a phone that you could exchange information with your computer and ability to install native applications". This is what I consider a smartphone to be too, hence 'the original iPhone wasn't a smartphone'.. well ,until Apple allowed 3rd party app.
 
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Who's talking exclusively about the form factor? Did you even bother reading what I originally wrote? You might as well dig up a Handspring Visor (Palm OS) and vomit that up as proof that someone did it before the iPhone. I'm not going to bother writing more because I don't think I really need to clarify what I wrote before.
You claimed that the iPhone was the first to to combine all these features (grid OS, touchscreen, etc.) in to a phone and you are wrong.

The OS layout on the LG is very similar to iOS in layout and functionality.
Some minor differences is no swiping, you simply tapped the return arrow on the screen.
Add to that the fact that LG didn't care if you installed 3rd party apps compared to the original iPhone that was locked up tighter than a drum.
Hell, it came with a lot of features that didn't show up in a iPhone for almost two years.

My form factor comment was to simply put emphasis on the lack of the iPhone's originality in physical design. It wasn't unique.

lg-prada.jpg

ed03dd336f12b747fa9a5f805a35ca65.jpg
prada2.jpg
 
You claimed that the iPhone was the first to to combine all these features (grid OS, touchscreen, etc.) in to a phone and you are wrong.
You've found a phone with similarities, but from top down, factoring in hardware and experience, there's still a massive gap in comparison. Still, I will say that it looks like it was ahead of its time and I didn't know about this phone before. But simply having a touch screen and a somewhat similar form factor is not what I was discussing. Apple was the company to make this really work; to make it really enjoyable.
 
Fact is everybody in any business steals IPs. Apple is just as much guilty as Motorola or Google or Microsft. Everyone's ****** culpable. I still expect google to be forced to give the next largest payout to Oracle due to all the blatant java IPs violated.
 
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It is well known that Apple spends relatively little in R & D compared to others. I wonder how much they spend in legal fees.

I assume the 'others' who spend more that you mention are including the cost of having to reverse engineer so much of Apple's work. :D
 
sue me sue you blues

Crapolla, only the lawyers make money on these suits.

QUIZ TIME:

Who said. "First we kill all the lawyers."

Who said. "The world will not be safe until the last priest is strangled with the guts of the last lawyer."


First correct answer gets fanned!! Oh, I forgot, this is not Huffington Post, you can't be fanned here. What a shame.
 
There is a reason why Apple products are much more expensive than others. Look at how much $$$ they are paying the lawyers.

We may pay more but at least they work like they are supposed to unlike the broken Windows machines I lost money on. I might as well have just sent a check to Microsoft - LOL
 
We may pay more but at least they work like they are supposed to unlike the broken Windows machines I lost money on. I might as well have just sent a check to Microsoft - LOL

Microsoft doesn't sell computers.

If your system was broken, you should have dealt with the hardware manufacturer, not Microsoft.
 
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AidenShaw said:
We may pay more but at least they work like they are supposed to unlike the broken Windows machines I lost money on. I might as well have just sent a check to Microsoft - LOL

Microsoft doesn't sell computers.

If your system was broken, you should have dealt with the hardware manufacturer, not Microsoft.

C'mon now, the hairs you're splitting are so small they might as well be short and curly.
 
Ford invented plenty. He just didn't invent the car.
That aside, it is a pretty good example in discussing Apple. He took something which already existed and refined it, making it accessible to the masses in a way never before conceived of. That was an exceptional accomplishment and it cannot be discredited by observing that he did not actually invent the automobile.

I'm still waiting for my White Model T. :D
 
Start sweating, MS.

Anyone else had the notion that with Apple winning the majority of these cases... they just might revisit the mother of all Patent infringements -WINDOWS?
 
Anyone else had the notion that with Apple winning the majority of these cases... they just might revisit the mother of all Patent infringements -WINDOWS?
Apple hasn't "won" any of these cases yet. They are all still in the preliminary hearing stages.
And the Windows matter was settled and cannot be revisited.
Apple didn't invent the windowed operating system.
They may have improved it, but the invention preceded them.
 
Steve Jobs & Company brought this on themselves.

Even Steve the Great must eventually deal with the consequences of his actions.

It's time to draw on Apple's billions of dollars of dirty money, to throw up road blocks and other diversions. With his finely honed talent in the smoke & mirrors department, there will be plenty of sacrificial lambs to blame it on.

At the end of the day, it won't phase the narcissistic Mr Turtleneck.
 
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