If this is largely about multi touch, and pinching and using the gestures, I think HTC have the moral high ground, if not the legal one.
Perhaps you should try reading the patents? Apple did not patent multitouch. They are suing HTC for violation of specific implementations.
For example, one of the patents involves using a horizontal swipe to unlock the phone. There are a zillion ways to potentially unlock a phone, but Apple was the first to use a horizontal swipe. HTC could have chosen to shake the phone to unlock, physical button, touch a button on the screen, touch multiple buttons on the screen, squeeze the phone, turn the phone upside down, lick a conductivity sensor, pass your hand over the phone, and many, many others. But HTC chose to use Apple's patented method.
I hope Apple will wake up finally and hope HTC will win this.
It will be very hard for HTC but let's see.
Competition is good but do it hardware/softwarewise and not patentwise.
Please explain why I should spend billions of dollars on R&D if there's nothing to stop the competition from copying my work?
I sort of agree. It's like patenting the wheel.
No, it's not. I'll wager you never read the patents. Apple patented specific implementations - which is what patent law is all about. Apple did not patent anything as broad as multitouch.
Would HTC be able to argue "we just built a dumb handset, it's Google's software that actually makes our phones multi-touch, go sue them"? Is it actually clear-cut who has (possibly) breached the patent?
They could argue that, but they'd lose. HTC is selling a phone which Apple says infringes its patents. If the court determines that the phone is infringing the patents, then HTC loses.
Now, HTC might have recourse against Google, but that would depend on what the license agreement says. In addition, if Apple wins against HTC, then they could go after Google as a contributory infringer, as well.
Competition is a good thing, I love my iPhone but would love other manufacturers force Apple to bring their A game on the next update. There hasn't been enough innovation since the 2G.
That's because the entire industry is spending their time copying Apple rather than inventing their own technologies. Apple is doing its share of innovation. Why aren't you attacking everyone else for not creating anything new?
Although I agree with Apple defending it's own IP, their actions do sometimes comes across as anti-competitive and stifling innovation. Go HTC! (But I'd still prefer an iPhone!)
It's really amazing how badly people distort the real issues here. Apple is innovating and wants to defend its innovations. How is that anti-competitive? How does it stifle innovation? If anything, it fosters innovation - since Apple is trying to force their competitors to come up with new ideas rather than just stealing Apple's innovations.
I am a software engineer by trade, so I'm directly involved with IP and new software concepts... some of which I've come up with.
That being said, US patent stuff is complete and utter *****... patent or no patent, they are awaking the wrong giants. I heard somewhere that MS, HTC, and Nokia have hundreds of patents that the iphone supposedly violates. I wish those companies would start calling apple out on their shenanigans.
I guess you've been asleep for the past year. Nokia is trying it, but Nokia is likely to lose because they're part of a consortium which guarantees reasonable and equitable licensing fees. Nokia is demanding more from Apple than from everyone else - which is a violation of the consortium terms. In fact, Nokia is now facing antitrust charges because they're illegally trying to use their patents to keep Apple out of the cell phone market (by demanding unreasonable and inequitable licensing terms).
MS has very little in the way of cell phone patents, btw. HTC has almost none. If they did, don't you think they'd have countersued Apple instead of releasing a press release saying "we're really nice guys and big, bad Apple is just a big meanie"?
