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Apple Suspends iCloud/MobileMe Push Email in Germany Due to Lawsuit
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ok, obviously I don't know the details of this case, but it sounds like they have a patent on the idea of push email on a phone, correct? Not just the specific method to push said email? If that's the case, it's stupid, just like almost every other patent out there. I'd hate to try to invent something in this day and age.
Patents on ideas and patents on a generic action/object are stupid. Patents should be limited to the method used to perform that action or specific design of the object. So instead of getting a patent to fly (idea), a patent on the propellor (generic object), or patent on the propellor spinning (generic action), you should get only a patent on the method used to make your propellor spin and the design of the propellor and blades.
Patents on ideas and patents on a generic action/object are stupid. Patents should be limited to the method used to perform that action or specific design of the object. So instead of getting a patent to fly (idea), a patent on the propellor (generic object), or patent on the propellor spinning (generic action), you should get only a patent on the method used to make your propellor spin and the design of the propellor and blades.
Google does *not* own Motorola Mobility
The deal has not closed - check Motorola Mobility's stock price at http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MMI&ql=1
http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...ck-replacement-for-jha-as-motorola-chief.html: "Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California-based Google, said the company doesnt comment on rumor or speculation. The acquisition hasnt closed, she said."
The deal has not closed - check Motorola Mobility's stock price at http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MMI&ql=1
http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...ck-replacement-for-jha-as-motorola-chief.html: "Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California-based Google, said the company doesnt comment on rumor or speculation. The acquisition hasnt closed, she said."
I doubt that really matters though - The sale has already been approved - it would be kind of silly for a lawsuit to occur between the two companies since the target would be buying the owners IP.
Looks like a relatively minor loss:
1) Few use MobileMe/iCloud email
2) You can still poll MobileMe/iCloud email every N minutes (just not push)
3) You can still manually refresh your email as well
4) You can still use Exchange sync with GMail (GoogleMail)
I think Apple is happy to appeal and accept the bond money if they win the appeal.
Motorola is coming under fire for using FRAND patents in other areas as offensive weapons against the industry and demanding exorbitant terms (e.g.: percentages of total sales price rather than flat amount per device). Samsung is getting the same heat on FRAND patents in the EU.
Personally, I wish Apple and all their competitors would just cross-license. But for Apple to go nuclear on this they must feel that they have a pretty good position. The only upside to all this is perhaps we will get some common-law rulings on FRAND patents that will prevent offering up a patent for FRAND to increase adoption and then trying to extort money on it later (especially with the double-dipping where the chip maker, Qualcomm, pays the royalty and then Motorola and Samsung still go after the maker of the final device that uses the chip). If I were Qualcomm, I would be suing Motorola and Samsung for messing with their ability to sell their chips after they already paid the royalty.
Apples not all roses in this either. Most of their patents are easy to work-around so I dont worry about those as much. Since Apple wont license anything, competitors should just work around those easy ones and tell Apple to stuff it. On the design patent front (or its equivalents), we need a ruling that says something as minimalist as a rectangular slab (phone or tablet) cannot be patented. Force Apple to be specific. For example: a rectangular slab, with a single round home button centered at the bottom, with a thin bezel on the sides and a horizontal slit in top area for speaker. Then somebody need only change one aspect to avoid infringement. The only place I think Apple has the right to sue related to design is in trade dress violations. On that front, Samsung is the only one making packaging and accessories that look nearly identical to Apples (though I think their newer stuff is diverging from mimicking Apples stuff like power adapters and boxing).
All in all, Apples stuff is fairly easy to work around and non-essential. The only exception to this is the design patent wars which clearly need to be more specific.
1) Few use MobileMe/iCloud email
2) You can still poll MobileMe/iCloud email every N minutes (just not push)
3) You can still manually refresh your email as well
4) You can still use Exchange sync with GMail (GoogleMail)
I think Apple is happy to appeal and accept the bond money if they win the appeal.
Motorola is coming under fire for using FRAND patents in other areas as offensive weapons against the industry and demanding exorbitant terms (e.g.: percentages of total sales price rather than flat amount per device). Samsung is getting the same heat on FRAND patents in the EU.
Personally, I wish Apple and all their competitors would just cross-license. But for Apple to go nuclear on this they must feel that they have a pretty good position. The only upside to all this is perhaps we will get some common-law rulings on FRAND patents that will prevent offering up a patent for FRAND to increase adoption and then trying to extort money on it later (especially with the double-dipping where the chip maker, Qualcomm, pays the royalty and then Motorola and Samsung still go after the maker of the final device that uses the chip). If I were Qualcomm, I would be suing Motorola and Samsung for messing with their ability to sell their chips after they already paid the royalty.
Apples not all roses in this either. Most of their patents are easy to work-around so I dont worry about those as much. Since Apple wont license anything, competitors should just work around those easy ones and tell Apple to stuff it. On the design patent front (or its equivalents), we need a ruling that says something as minimalist as a rectangular slab (phone or tablet) cannot be patented. Force Apple to be specific. For example: a rectangular slab, with a single round home button centered at the bottom, with a thin bezel on the sides and a horizontal slit in top area for speaker. Then somebody need only change one aspect to avoid infringement. The only place I think Apple has the right to sue related to design is in trade dress violations. On that front, Samsung is the only one making packaging and accessories that look nearly identical to Apples (though I think their newer stuff is diverging from mimicking Apples stuff like power adapters and boxing).
All in all, Apples stuff is fairly easy to work around and non-essential. The only exception to this is the design patent wars which clearly need to be more specific.
LOL, but he's right - no info either to my IOS devices or to my desktop via email.
Perhaps they are hoping nobody will notice
So you're saying that you can still using iCloud by refreshing every N minutes *or* you can use Gmail for full push functionality?
How is that NOT Google bullying people into their services by making it harder to use the competitions services?
What do you mean, INSTEAD of trashy people? This is pretty trashy behaviour all round.
Only winners are the lawyers.
hmmmm....
rectangular shaped phone...box and packaging..."look and feel"
you must haven't heard of these cases then.
Apple is also trying hard to prevent their competition from selling their products. According to your logic, Apple is a bully.
What? You mean this isn't protecting innovation?
Look on the bright side - maybe if things get more and more ridiculous in the patent wars, governments might start to step forward and instigate reviews of the patent system. It certainly seems to have swung from just protecting innovation to stifling competition.
Not really, life is moving well for the lawyers and the people who own all the patents.
What? You mean this isn't protecting innovation?
.
I see some pretty innovative patent laws continuously emerging. I guess it just depends where we want to place the emphasis.
Right...
Apple upends the industry with an entire reboot, defends its innovations when every one of their competitors flat out copy their design, and somehow Apple 'started it'. Gimme a break. Moto is simply flailing for the Rim as they circle the drain.
It takes some time to individually inform customers. Because you are plugged into MacRumors, you heard this at the earliest moment possible. Mathematically, it is not possible to individually inform you before the earliest possible time you can be informed.
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Google and Moto talk constantly, and undoubtedly Moto received encouragement from Google to do this.
Any link to those sentences saying that ALL the competition has flat out copied Apple's design?
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Undoubtedly? Ah, yes, that "undoubtedly" that means that I want to believe that
And now talinkg about that, another BS injunction granted because and old patent from Motorola that I think that now doesn't have to be valid.
Not the only reason
Having just found to my (not fatal but very substantial) cost this evening, there may actually be another reason. Motorola or rather some of the directors of Motorola has/have very good relations with some VERY senior people in China so this may well be another chance for Google to improve their standing in an enormous potential market they previously messed up in.
Quote from the Support Document
Here's an interesting end piece from the Apple Support Document (THis is the way they "informed" everybody apparently - if someone noticed they aren't getting push any longer, they go to the Support pages & search there!)
Now, maybe it is just the wording, but I read it that it is saying that there is NO way to reinstate push for Mobile Me users once they have been in Germany and are outside again except to move to iCloud? That sounds crazy.
Here's an interesting end piece from the Apple Support Document (THis is the way they "informed" everybody apparently - if someone noticed they aren't getting push any longer, they go to the Support pages & search there!
)Now, maybe it is just the wording, but I read it that it is saying that there is NO way to reinstate push for Mobile Me users once they have been in Germany and are outside again except to move to iCloud? That sounds crazy.
gmail uses MS's ActiveSync (http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/). Since MS hasn't been sued (at least not yet), that is my guess as to why Google hasn't been sued.
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