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Apple Wins Appeals Battle in Ongoing Patent Infringement War With VirnetX, Could Save $502.8 Million

PinkyMacGodess said:
But PARC was an open door store and MANY ideas they came up with were 'stolen' to create billion dollar companies. 3Com is one. There are many others.

I did get to see the 'first ever laser printer'. It was GIGANTIC!! Like almost three huge chest type freezers set end to end, and a bit wider/taller. And how many years until we had the Apple Laserwriter?

If Xerox wanted to sue every company that 'stole' their tech innovations, they would level the industry as we know it. PARC was basic research for research sake. If government actually funded basic research, there could be massive leaps and bounds due to that program. Research often isn't profitable, so it's almost literally pouring money down a hole, but when it hits, it often hits big.

And Star was a GIU, and Apple/steve had no access to the source code, but did see the operation. They programmed their Finder to be similar to Star, but different enough to avoid lawsuits anyway.
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most of those ideas were graduate student projects at Stanford working part-time at PARC who funded their ideas. The fact they were a pure research for research sake shouldn't negate the fact Apple gave PARC stock valued > $100 million but PARC sold it early.

The board at Xerox had no idea what they were creating funding all those said projects, but 3Com, BayNetworks, SUN Microsystems, etc., got their ideas tested w/o having a need for Venture Capitalism as it didn't exist then.

Steve was fond of mentioning not getting Smalltalk while being mesmerized by the Mouse and GUIs that Apple took to a whole new level.
 
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Thank goodness! I was worried that Apple might get into a bit of trouble financially.

This together with the news that they may be paying cost for the lens of the Pro Max,..should hopefully get them through these tough, cost of living pressures that Apple find themeselves in.

Maybe Apple should see if all its manufacturers can do free parts?
 
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chabig said:
I do not understand this comment at all. Apple never implemented Xerox’s STAR GUI. They invented their own, which was very different.
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Xerox's STAR GUI looks very similar to the Mac Classic. At least to me. This was a time when a GUI was almost nonexistent.
 
MacRumors said:
Regardless of how this case plays out, Apple was forced to pay VirnetX $440 million for violating VirnetX's communications security patents with the FaceTime and iMessage features.
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ct2k7 said:
VirtnetX stopped Apple from making FaceTime an open standard. I won’t forget.
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This makes me mad. Things would be so much better if FaceTime was an open standard.
 
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adib said:
Xerox's STAR GUI looks very similar to the Mac Classic. At least to me. This was a time when a GUI was almost nonexistent.
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It looks similar at a glance, but it's very different in use. It has no drop-down menus and is primarily keyboard driven. Icons don't directly represent files, and the desktop is more of a "work area"; to open a document you need to create an icon for it on the desktop, and then you need to delete the icon once you've finished with it. A modern (or even classic) Mac user would likely struggle.
 
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Naraxus said:
Of course. Apple steals & deliberately infringes on other company's tech/ip and then has the complete nerve to play victim, refuses to pay what they should for said theft, and drags the company through the courts.

From XeroxPARC to this. Same as it ever was.
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livingcomputers.org

Living Computers: Museum + Labs

What Really Happened: Steve Jobs @ Xerox PARC '79
livingcomputers.org livingcomputers.org

It was not a [secret]; was shown to about 2000 visitors. It just confirmed the Lisa project was on the right track. Apple paid [with shares] - which Xerox quickly sold ....

So much rage?
 
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PinkyMacGodess said:
But PARC was an open door store and MANY ideas they came up with were 'stolen' to create billion dollar companies. 3Com is one. There are many others.

I did get to see the 'first ever laser printer'. It was GIGANTIC!! Like almost three huge chest type freezers set end to end, and a bit wider/taller. And how many years until we had the Apple Laserwriter?

If Xerox wanted to sue every company that 'stole' their tech innovations, they would level the industry as we know it. PARC was basic research for research sake. If government actually funded basic research, there could be massive leaps and bounds due to that program. Research often isn't profitable, so it's almost literally pouring money down a hole, but when it hits, it often hits big.

And Star was a GIU, and Apple/steve had no access to the source code, but did see the operation. They programmed their Finder to be similar to Star, but different enough to avoid lawsuits anyway.
Click to expand...
I got to see some of the legacy Xerox stuff back in the mid-1980s - very cool for its time!
 
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Naraxus said:
Of course. Apple steals & deliberately infringes on other company's tech/ip and then has the complete nerve to play victim, refuses to pay what they should for said theft, and drags the company through the courts.

From XeroxPARC to this. Same as it ever was.
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Sounds to me like you are a patent troll too
 
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Naraxus said:
Of course. Apple steals & deliberately infringes on other company's tech/ip and then has the complete nerve to play victim, refuses to pay what they should for said theft, and drags the company through the courts.

From XeroxPARC to this. Same as it ever was.
Click to expand...

So, two things:

-Apple didn't steal from XeroxPARC, they were literally told to take whatever they observed with them to do what they wished with in exchange for shares.

-VirnetX is a patent troll, these are bad guys and it's good when they lose.
 
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Naraxus said:
Of course. Apple steals & deliberately infringes on other company's tech/ip and then has the complete nerve to play victim, refuses to pay what they should for said theft, and drags the company through the courts.

From XeroxPARC to this. Same as it ever was.
Click to expand...
Apple didn’t steal anything from Xerox. Xerox had invested in Apple and invited Jobs up to see what PARC was doing. It was a very friendly partnership.
 
Naraxus said:
Of course. Apple steals & deliberately infringes on other company's tech/ip and then has the complete nerve to play victim, refuses to pay what they should for said theft, and drags the company through the courts.

From XeroxPARC to this. Same as it ever was.
Click to expand...
Patent trolls getting what they deserve.
 
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I remember back when the question of whether or not software can be patented was still decided. Everyone who knew what they were talking about said it would be a disaster and hold back innovation and lead to so much harmful litigation.

And then they did it anyway.

Software is already covered just fine under copyright. This is what happens when the government tells a bunch of lawyers that you can patent math. They shrug, smirk, and get to suing. They know it’s ridiculous but they’re lawyers, that’s what they do.
 
bLackjackj said:
It seems some have a short term memory, when it comes to Apple "borrowing" ideas.

www.businessinsider.com

11 features Apple 'borrowed' from Android in the last year

Apple has added several new features to the iPhone that Android has had for years.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
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They all borrow, to use your term, from each other. It depends on how closely their 'borrowing' is. There are large differences between Star, Finder, and Windows. They are vaguely similar, but that's not (yet) illegal.
 
philstubbington said:
I got to see some of the legacy Xerox stuff back in the mid-1980s - very cool for its time!
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If Xerox exerted rights over all of the stuff that came out of PARC they would be in a position to destroy the computer industry. So much of it is in the base of what we use today. THAT is the danger of patent and copyright troll firms. But they can make huge money extorting 'victims', and over stating often weak claims. I read one patent that was in active lawsuits and it was so vague it could cover damned near anything. The granting agencies are just as fumbling as Congress. (That TicTok hearing was embarrassing)
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
I read one patent that was in active lawsuits and it was so vague it could cover damned near anything. The granting agencies are just as fumbling as Congress.
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That is the true danger - extremely broad patents designed specifically for use in future lawsuits being approved by the USPTO. And then you have the four Texas federal district courts that "specialize" in patent cases and seem to grant almost "favored nation" status with companies holding such broad patents.
 
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CWallace said:
That is the true danger - extremely broad patents designed specifically for use in future lawsuits being approved by the USPTO. And then you have the four Texas federal district courts that "specialize" in patent cases and seem to grant almost "favored nation" status with companies holding such broad patents.
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Patent abuse *could* be used by Luddites to attack the society they loath. Yes, it is a very clear and present danger, and they know it... People forget that if a court is biased, then *anything* is possible. Often the bar for appealing a 'biased' decision is so high the loser can't pull it off.
 
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