Probably because it's more like "Wow, a keyboard that looks like..... a [specific] keybaord"
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BlackBerry Sues Typo Again Over Second-Generation iPhone Keyboard Case
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Refreshing to see someone who is awake on these forums. Patents try unsuccessfully to remove risk from free markets but that's what markets are all about. Risk vs. reward. Lots of freedom haters on Macrumors.
Well according to the courts it didn't. Apple sued remember? And failed. Microsoft had even licensed certain GUI parts from Apple and yet Apple went right ahead and sued anyway all due to overlapping Windows in Windows 2.0. If you knew your stuff you'd also know that Xerox tried to sue Apple... and failed.
Sorry, but your post is nonsensical.
I wouldn't go as far as calling them freedom haters. It's difficult to understand economics and a free-market in the current system that we live in. Heck, even I struggle with how it would work, given the years of conditioning most companies have gone through just to legally operate.
People forget that Apple is still the wealthiest company in the world, even though Google completely mirrored their work on iOS and the iPhone. We all benefitted tremendously from all the "copycats".
I wonder where Apple would have been, had they not focussed so much time, money, and effort on trying to ruin Google over an idea that science fiction writers originally produced.
Spoken like a true lawyer!
Yeah... Think you have some CHANCE of winning your case, no matter how ridiculous? Go for it then! Your attorney's gotta making a living too!
Seriously people, this is about a freakin' keyboard! Maybe Underwriter or Smith Corona or someone should sue all of the personal computer makers for adopting their QWERTY layout keyboards too?!
Yeah... Think you have some CHANCE of winning your case, no matter how ridiculous? Go for it then! Your attorney's gotta making a living too!
Seriously people, this is about a freakin' keyboard! Maybe Underwriter or Smith Corona or someone should sue all of the personal computer makers for adopting their QWERTY layout keyboards too?!
Totally agree with you here. It's kinda ridiculous too. Same shape. Almost same font. Almost same key spacing.
Unlikely. They don't know how to do Samsung's specialty: Drag out court case and payment for so long that you make 10 times the money that the infringement costs.
Here's the story...
http://lowendmac.com/2006/the-apple-vs-microsoft-gui-lawsuit/
The Supreme Court ultimately declined to hear that case, but there were multiple lawsuits one being settled by Microsoft paying Apple bribe money to stop suing because to Bill Gates at the time, that was FU money. He didn't see Apple as ever being a threat. You can dream, but a settlement where you pay $100 million dollars may not technically be a loss on paper, but in reality, it was a loss because by licensing parts of the Mac interface, MS was admitting they copied it. Don't you think? At the time, Apple needed the money more than the moral victory in court. You can spin in any way you want, but that's the truth.
Anyone with half a brain and maybe even a Blackberry knows Windows was a direct copy of Macintosh in almost every way because Microsoft was the most involved developer in the Macintosh and had access to everything.
It was ultimately those licenses to technology that bit Apple in the ass just like Bill Gates pulled the same stunt on IBM.
At this point it's all water under the bridge, but if you believe Bill Gates created Windows, you're completely nuts.
And if you believe Blackberry can patent all kinds of keyboard designs, you are similarly nuts.
I have really bad old phones with keyboards similar to the Blackberry. Their patent claim is really shallow compared to Apple's against Microsoft in hindsight.
I'm so glad Blackberry invented the keyboard. Boy, and I'm even more glad they licensed it to Apple, otherwise I wouldn't be able to type on my Macbook.
Yes, that was sarcasm. But if the keyboard were invented today, that's how it would work.
Because, using that example, if BlackBerry spent time inventing a good keyboard then surely everyone should just benefit from their work just because. They are free to invent their own keyboard but that doesn't mean they get to take someone else's work and brand recognition and just benefit from it just because.
I respect what you are trying to say here. SpaceX and Tesla are both run by Elon Musk (CEO at one, chief designer at the other). What you are saying is that because Elon Musk had the resources to make his patents available to everyone, everyone should have the same resources.
The problem is, that is not realistic. When Apple opened the flood gates in the App store, what happened? A race to the bottom. What we got was a lot of crap for a while. Then we found a system that legitimizes crapware (freemium).
What would happen if we invalidated all patents? I would spend years designing something and a big company would steal the design reaping the benefit of my R&D while not having to pay for R&D. This makes R&D not worth anything because you can't get paid for it.
A company like Samsung with billions could snipe any idea they wanted, and there is nothing anyone could say about it. Why would I spend my time developing something so that someone else can get paid for it? What leads you to believe that time is not worth anything? What leads you to believe it's okay for people with larger pocket books to get something for nothing? Why is that okay?
Patents exist because it is NOT okay. I get wanting to help keep technology moving, but the answer has nothing to do with... throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We need reform, not destruction.
Hes a Libertarian, you can't reason with him. He thinks the world could be a perfect little utopia if the government just got out of the damn way.
Just move to China or any 3rd world asian country and have fun shopping countless look-a-like phones and devices at their countless shops and kiosks in the streets and malls!
Must you demonize those with whom you have an ideological disagreement? There are legitimate arguments being discussed for and against the propositions you state as facts here. It's a childish and demagogic mode of argument dressed up in arrogant intellectual pretense. Smart people disagree about intellectual property law in relation to free market economics, including many diversely opinionated conservatives and libertarians. Your absolutist pronouncements mask ignorance of the complexities in the intellectual world beyond a marginally regarded economist named Hayek and a weird and nihilistic novelist named Rand.
There is an exact analog of this sneering certainty about the stupidity of IP law on the left. It's represented in this thread, but then its champion decided to elaborate to the great benefit of the civil debate here. Why not undertake to represent your extremist libertarian position in the debate in earnest?
All human societies have systems of both law and custom for restricting the circulation of knowledge, across time and cultural boundaries. It's sheer sophomoric fantasy to imagine "freedom" is incompatible with the ability to own knowledge as property.
It's sad when Blackberry looks out for itself but when Apple sues Samsung, everything is alright? What an effing joke. We arent one to talk. Apple sued Samsung over pretty much the same reasoning; look and feel. How do you sue another company over rounded corners? ROUNDED effing corners.
Oh hey, it's a qwerty keyboard that hooks the onto your iPhone! They obviously stole this idea from BB...lol