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Apple's Patent Portfolio Manager Exiting as HTC and Samsung Disputes Simmer

bbeagle said:
:rolleyes: Sigh. Words seem to have lost meaning to some people.

A patent troll is a company who does not make products, like Lodsys, who uses their patents to go after other companies just for money.

Apple is either using patents to protect it's business or to drive others out of business.

Driving others out of business is not necessarily bad. If they own legit patents, it is totally fair to drive others who are doing illegal activities out of business.
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That's a very narrow definition. Apple does not use most of their patents in real devices either. This should count as trolling too. In case of Lodsys, at least some of their patents are real (Apple licensed some). Most Apple patents are useless. They seemingly can never win a patent related law suit.
 
Perhaps HTC needs to compete fairly by building their own OS instead of using patent encumbered Android.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
That's because Microsoft is ONLY going after a specific IP used in Android. Apple is trying to go after just about anyone who uses a touch-screen device, trying to stop them from selling their device, and being a bully about it.

One's acting like they're protecting their IP, the other's being a troll.
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Do you REALLY believe that Apple can go around, start a full fledged war with a number of suits and ITC complaints without having a valid set of patents to sue for?

Seriously?
 
lilo777 said:
That's a very narrow definition. Apple does not use most of their patents in real devices either. This should count as trolling too. In case of Lodsys, at least some of their patents are real (Apple licensed some). Most Apple patents are useless. They seemingly can never win a patent related law suit.
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Development cycles are very long today. Projects can be on the books for 10 years or more. Apple quite probably has plans for every patent. That is not to say, many of the project might be canceled before they are finished. Most projects at a big company are.
 
PlipPlop said:
I wonder if Apple would be suing people if the iphone was selling as well as Android devices.
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The iPhone is selling significantly better than any Android device. iOS is matching Android sales.

Compare a phone to a phone OR a platform to a platform.
 
I'm pro competition as the consumer ultimately benefits, but what innovation did samsung and htc bring to the market?

Nothing but kirf's brought to market three years late, reliant on a OS neither wrote. I can remember the phones they were producing before the iPhone...

As former nokia ceo Anssi Vanjoki wrote, Android manufactures are no better than Finnish boys who pee in their pants for warmth in the winter.

Apple should target android, such a blatant ios rip off and a poor one at that...yes I've used android, regrettably I used to work for a large phone retailer during my architecture degree.
 
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lilo777 said:
That's a very narrow definition. Apple does not use most of their patents in real devices either. This should count as trolling too. In case of Lodsys, at least some of their patents are real (Apple licensed some). Most Apple patents are useless. They seemingly can never win a patent related law suit.
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You mean every patent somehow emerges into a real technology?

I bet if 0.1% of them actually did, we'd made it to the Sun already. ;)
 
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RalfTheDog said:
Long term, I think the best strategy is,

1. Shorten production schedules. Instead of one iPhone and one iPad per year, do two or more. Out spend them in R&D, innovate them into the ground.

2. Grab every bit of IP you can and keep them in court.

3. Out spend them 10 to 1 on advertising. Own the totality of the mind share.



This has been standard operating procedure from the first day people started selling fake handbags in the United States, Not only can they block import, they can have all inventories in the US destroyed.
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Be careful though. As of today, in all these litigations Apple is the only company infringing on others patents as determined by court (Nokia patents and S3/HTC patents). Are you suggesting Apple products should be banned from import immediately (and existing stock destroyed)?
 
lilo777 said:
Be careful though. As of today, in all these litigations Apple is the only company infringing on others patents as determined by court (Nokia patents and S3/HTC patents). Are you suggesting Apple products should be banned from import immediately (and existing stock destroyed)?
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Unfortunately, if they were to pay off the judge again, they might pull this off.
 
ChazUK said:
It seems that HTC are willing to licence tech when they have to (See: Microsoft).

What is unfair about using a third party OS may I ask?
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I don't think that's exactly what me he meant.

He meant Android itself is a patent suit 'magnet'. All these manufacturers:

either get their IP upto the mark which I'm sure some have.

OR

license them - just like on fair business terms.
 
erzhik said:
if you want to sue someone, fine. But asking the judge to block devices from being imported, that's a new low and a sign of fear. And people say that Apple is not a bully? funny.
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Yes funny. I assume you're joking. That has been standard practice in every patent suit by everyone for years.
 
dethmaShine said:
When Microsoft tries to make Android as a multi-billion dollar business, every thing's fine. When Apple tries to make up a deal, then Apple is a patent troll.
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What deal? Has anyone ever heard of Apple licensing its patents to competitors? (Besides the court mandated sharing between Apple and MS.)

Microsoft offered to license its patents and provide protection for those using them. HTC and others see that as a benefit, even if not all the MS patents are applicable.

Apple does not offer licenses for its patents, preferring instead to try to stop competitors from even selling their devices. Naturally, all the companies being sued are going to fight Apple's patent claims.

It's a huge difference in approach.
 
kdarling said:
What deal? Has anyone ever heard of Apple licensing its patents to competitors? (Besides the court mandated sharing between Apple and MS.)

Microsoft offered to license its patents and provide protection for those using them. HTC and others see that as a benefit, even if not all the MS patents are applicable.

Apple does not offer licenses for its patents, preferring instead to try to stop competitors from even selling their devices. Naturally, all the companies being sued are going to fight Apple's patent claims.

It's a huge difference in approach.
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Is that a joke?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8J2)

PlipPlop said:
I wonder if Apple would be suing people if the iphone was selling as well as Android devices.
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Name one Android based device that is selling as well as the iPhone.
 
nerdo said:
Then why oh why didn't any of the competing phones exist the way they do now before the iPhone? Everybody knows they copied the iPhone, HTC was famous for being one of the many teams out there ready to start copying the day after the iPhone was released. Oh and yes I know, someone will dismiss this as fanboi talk when the reality is, before the iPhone all we had was a crappy windows mobile. I gave my ipaq to a friend, it sucked.

Patents or not, before the iPhone nobody knew what to do with all the tech and make it user friendly. now they know how they want to sue the goose that laid the golden iEgg.

All pretty pathetic really but oh well.
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You demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of smartphones. The iPhone was not the first one (arguably the first iPhone wasn't really a smartphone), and Windows Mobile was not the only predecessor. You're forgetting Symbian, PalmOS, and RIM, who had considerable market share way before Apple entered the game.

When they did, they came out with something remarkably similar to what Samsung was unveiling (and later sued Samsung for "copying" Apple when it's rather plain Apple did the same thing to Samsung)

http://i.imgur.com/ui3sk.jpg

There's a reason companies are frightened of Android-based handsets -- it's expensive to compete against a platform that is designed to be nimble to develop on.
 
skoorbevad said:
You demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of smartphones. The iPhone was not the first one (arguably the first iPhone wasn't really a smartphone), and Windows Mobile was not the only predecessor. You're forgetting Symbian, PalmOS, and RIM, who had considerable market share way before Apple entered the game.

When they did, they came out with something remarkably similar to what Samsung was unveiling (and later sued Samsung for "copying" Apple when it's rather plain Apple did the same thing to Samsung)

http://i.imgur.com/ui3sk.jpg

There's a reason companies are frightened of Android-based handsets -- it's expensive to compete against a platform that is designed to be nimble to develop on.
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Well, your post is actually true. But the image you used for the same is factually wrong.

You should try again.
 
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