Tim Cook: Apple Will Aggressively Protect iPhone Intellectual Property

[O and A]

Since it's elephants all the way down, am I to understand that Microsoft will sue Apple for gestures on its Surface, and that the University of Toronto will sue Microsoft... oh why not, then Xerox will sue Microsoft and Apple? Then various science fiction writers will sue Xerox?

Unless the award for invention goes to the best marketing department, in which case, err, gooo Apple!

I think the patents aren't about the pinching and zooming but rather how they are implemented on a mobile device. Microsoft surface probably has a different implementation for a non mobile device.

And i'm sure it goes beyond just the gestures. Everyone has a right to defend its IP. If they have a patent for it than they are within their right.

As far as patents go we all know that system needs to be fixed but the law is the law.

 

[jbernie]

Since when pinching and swiping become IP? Hasn't Tim Cook seen the part in Matrix Reloaded when the open the gates for the Nebuchadnezzar?

Next thing you know left & right clicking will see us in court......

 

[kdarling]

While the Pre's exterior doesn't look like the iPhone, I was really shocked to see how similar the interfaces were (with swiping, pinching, etc.) Interested to see what happens

You should only be shocked at how easily Jobs pulled the wool over people's eyes.

Sun showed off the pinch in 1992. Swiping dates from the 1980s.

What I find most humorous is the concept of Apple worrying about Rubenstein and IP. Oh wait, didn't Apple just hire an ARM designer away from IBM, and is claiming that there is no IP problem with that?

 

[zacman]

Thanks god there are no software patents in Europe.

 

[iWizzard]

Death to softwere patents!
Long live competition!!!

Iphone was not the first, shure it is now the "standrd model" for this segment.
But just look what competition have created. The Palm pre seem to be equal or superiar in almost every singal thing the iphone does.

Now we nead a palm pre killer, then an X killer and in a few generations we will have several amazing smartphones.

"killing" iphone was not that hard for Palm just look what apple did rigt and fix everything they did wrong or left out.

 

[PredatoryWasp86]

apple blows so hard

used to be a fan, but the hate is growing stronger with every weak move like this

 

[Bubba Satori]

I really get the feeling that the Pre is well overhyped.

Maybe Apple has a patent on that too.

 

[jimmer-uk]

This is a bad thing to me, one of the nice things on the iphone is the smoothness of the swiping gestures ( originally seen on the HTC touch ) and also the pinching of images ( again, been seen before on things like microsofts surface although admitadly not on a phone) . I can't see how you can protect these 2 features and hope to see them on other manufacturers handsets in the future to see what the competition can bring out!

Edit: upon reading the rest of the thread I see people have already mentioned all this!!

 

[ivladster]

Yay!

Kill all copycats...very slowly...

 

[xlii]

We will defend our patents... that is what every company that has patents will tell you. A patent that isn't defended is worth nothing.

 

[ruutiveijari]

Kill all copycats...very slowly...

Shall we start with Apple? Every company copies.

 

[seedster2]

You should only be shocked at how easily Jobs pulled the wool over people's eyes.

Sun showed off the pinch in 1992. Swiping dates from the 1980s.

What I find most humorous is the concept of Apple worrying about Rubenstein and IP. Oh wait, didn't Apple just hire an ARM designer away from IBM, and is claiming that there is no IP problem with that?

I was going to bring up the IBM employee drama as well.

Funny how enthusiasts' selective memories cloud their perspective on the news. I look forward to the Pre developing alongside the iphone. It's a promising device.

 

[Quillz]

Kill all copycats...very slowly...

Because you would prefer Apple to have a monopoly, right? That would allow them to never update their products and charge any amount they feel like.

 

[dernhelm]

I was going to bring up the IBM employee drama as well.

Funny how enthusiasts' selective memories cloud their perspective on the news. I look forward to the Pre developing alongside the iphone. It's a promising device.

Weren't there lawsuits filed over that hiring? If Apple can get sued for POTENTIAL IP infringements, isn't it reasonable to assume that they should be able to sue for LIKELY ones?

 

[farmboy]

Not

boo. finger swiping and pinch zooming are intuitive and not exclusive to the iPhone (e.g. microsoft's "surface" had it first). perhaps we shouldn't allow you to use your fingers at all with other phones? legally speaking, some things just aren't able to be patented. yes, the UI may require some protections, but hopefully apple will focus more on innovation than on law suits...

Microsoft introduced a prototype of Surface at about the same time as Apple introduced a finished product. MS was not first in any way.

The multi-touch can indeed be patented, and has been. Please read the basics of patent applications to understand all this.

 

[farmboy]

So you would prefer that Apple became a monopoly in the phone industry? Competition and "iPhone killers" is what's going to keep Apple constantly improving the iPhone.

Trading one monopoly (Microsoft) for another (Apple) is not at all a good idea.

Apple owns certain intellectual property that they paid a lot of money to buy and develop. They are entitled to protect it and keep others from using it if they choose not to license it. Just because it's really cool and everyone wants it is irrelevant. You don't get to use other people's property, period.

Whether it stifles your perception of competition is also irrelevant. Apple owns what they own. And if other companies---who are also supposed to be innovating--can't come up with a better interface, tough.

And whether licensing costs consumers more, also too bad. Although licensing fees are typically per unit and likely to be quite small and unnoticeable to the consumer.

 

[theBB]

If anybody wants to learn more about Jon Rubenstein and the story about the creation of the first iPod, here is a nice article:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/sep08/6592

 

[sexyfoolxx]

Microsoft introduced a prototype of Surface at about the same time as Apple introduced a finished product. MS was not first in any way.

The multi-touch can indeed be patented, and has been. Please read the basics of patent applications to understand all this.

The first Surface prototype was in 2003. You're referring to it's unveiling. Multi-touch also dates back to the early 80's. Wikipedia is your friend.

 

[vga4life]

Palm owns a ton of PDA and smartphone-related patents.

Apple does not want to go nuclear here. They might think they can win a war of attrition, but patent judgments are often unpredictable - Apple could end up bankrolling Palm for the next decade with forfeit iPhone revenues.

 

[fishmoose]

Competition is good and it will make the iPhone even better. But Apple still have the right to protect there patents and they should do that.

 

[newb16]

They should have patented drag-and-drop back in 1984.

 

[farmboy]

Because you would prefer Apple to have a monopoly, right? That would allow them to never update their products and charge any amount they feel like.

I have a feeling from this and other posts that you are not a business person, and don't quite get it. It's not a monopoly, OK? There are plenty of phones and user interfaces available now and waiting to be invented. And remember, other companies have to innovate as well, not just copy because it's cheaper that way.

And if they charge an amount you don't like, don't buy it. It's a free world. When enough people don't buy, the price comes down. That's the way it works.

 

[morespce54]

Steve himself said they patented the bejeezus out of the iPhone tech. Hopefully that includes all the gesture/multi touch stuff, and Apple can see some sweet licensing fees from the other companies down the road.

That's interesting because I'm wouldn't mind having the same "gestures" on different phones (or computers). I'm not sure I want to learn three different set of gestures depending on which platform I'm working on...

(On dargn, I forgot, this one doesn't "swipe", it "twirl")

 

[paja]

If Apple was your company you would be defending it too.

It costs companies millions to develop products and software. Why shouldn't they have the right to defend what theirs.

 

[elppa]

On the GUI wars…

Yeah, it's one thing to reverse engineer. To figure out how to make a phone that acts like the iphone. I'm not sure if you can patent the swipe or the pinch. Apple doesn't own those ideas anyway. This all goes back to suing MS over their IP on the os with Win 95. They lost. Mainly, because Apple reverse engineered many of the basic principles from. The mouse, the click, the pull down menu, etc.

They lost mainly because they (Apple) had licensed the look and feel to Microsoft earlier for Office. Without that it's arguable they would have lost at all.

On the Surface…

boo. finger swiping and pinch zooming are intuitive and not exclusive to the iPhone (e.g. microsoft's "surface" had it first).

The surface was demoed after the iPhone.
And before anyone corrects me, I couldn't care less if Microsoft claim they were working on it since 2003, 1993 or 1693, we never saw any evidence of it!

Microsoft surface probably has a different implementation for a non mobile device.

It uses a series of cameras underneath the table, something which doesn't scale well to a phone.

Compared to the iPhone, the surface implementation is very different. It's an exciting product, but it has different use cases.

( again, been seen before on things like microsofts surface although admitadly not on a phone)

It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference

Back of the class.

I imagine the iPhone and surface were developed in parallel. Surface before iPhone is stretching it. Good bit of reality distortion by Microsoft though that people believe this.

On Papermaster…

Oh wait, didn't Apple just hire an ARM designer away from IBM, and is claiming that there is no IP problem with that?

Papermaster will be working on consumer electronics at Apple. His speciality was server chips, not the ARM architecture.

On the Pre…

I really get the feeling that the Pre is well overhyped. Have to wait and see I suppose...

The “true multitasking” is really finger swiping between WebKit views.
If it wasn't for Apple (and the community) there would be no WebKit.

Plus we don't know how much the thing will even cost yet.

It adds about 5 nice features (Synergy, Copy & Paste, Gesture Area, Cordless Charge, Today Screen) over the iPhone and comes with drawbacks of its own and a series of unknowns. So yeah, over-hyped is a good word.