VIA Technologies Files Patent Lawsuit Against Apple Over iOS Device Processors

[acidfast7]

This is excellent news ....







... patent law really needs to be revised and all of this publicity is good for moving the USPTO toward revision.

 

[jayducharme]

What technologies is Apple infringing? I'm kinda interested in this.

Me too. Isn't Apple part of the group that oversees ARM development?

 

[entatlrg]

You invent something, someone copies it, you invent something else someone else copies that. Never ending cycle of copying others. Then the lawsuits come, not just from one angle but various angles.

Such a wasteful use of time and resources. (lawsuits). It's destroying everything. Everyone should just be able to copy everyone else, then the best product wins. Also, best price.

You have zero appreciation for inventors hard work.

You condone theft.

You're part of the problem, that's for sure.

Sad.

 

[wovel]

What comes around goes around. Apple is merely getting a taste of its own medicine.

Not really that. Even if Apple never sued anyone, most of the same lawsuits would be filed today. They are a massive company that makes stuff that makes lots of money.

Everyone wants a piece of it. In some cases , Apple may even be overlooking some legitimate patent. It probably isn't news every time some sues Apple.

 

[314631]

This is terrible news for consumers. These companies should stop litigating and start doing what Apple does best innovate.

 

[thelonelylimo]

Funny how just last week the CEO of VIA and his wife, who is the CEO of HTC were shopping at an Apple Store.

Now lawsuit?

LOL

*removed*

 

[tripjammer]

Everybody's against apple now.. I wonder who else will against apple.. Hope that iPhone 5 will not be the last iPhone!!

Apple has enough money to buy all these companies. They are just fighting against apple to stay alive. Also does not mean they will win in court.

 

[D4F]

Everyone has patents on everyone else, Apple has gone on the offensive, probably forcing a dozen companies hands with preemptive lawsuits incase Apple digs up some antique patent them.

Please tell me this, why is it when Apple is suing, they are the Noble Knight in shining Armour, defending their hard worked ideas and inventions. But when someone sues Apple, its the company:

• Being greedy
• Doing it because they're scared of Apple
• Patent Trolling
• It's must be their only source of income
• They want a piece of "Apples Pie"

And no, I will not accept "But, but Apple revolutionized xxxxx and yyyyy. This makes them above the law"

LTD is on Apple payroll so what you expect??

 

[wovel]

Everyone has patents on everyone else, Apple has gone on the offensive, probably forcing a dozen companies hands with preemptive lawsuits incase Apple digs up some antique patent them.

Please tell me this, why is it when Apple is suing, they are the Noble Knight in shining Armour, defending their hard worked ideas and inventions. But when someone sues Apple, its the company:

• Being greedy
• Doing it because they're scared of Apple
• Patent Trolling
• It's must be their only source of income
• They want a piece of "Apples Pie"

And no, I will not accept "But, but Apple revolutionized xxxxx and yyyyy. This makes them above the law"

I doubt Via is trolling, they may well have a legitimate case. I also think most of Apple cases are legitimate.

I think Samsung is getting desperate and just making things up now. They are floating rumor about legal action they will never actually take. They are just trying to win a PR battle. Unfortunately they need to stop their free falling profits.

HTC is just googles little lawsuit b..umm well you know.

In any case, Apple has lawsuits filed against it everyday. It would still happen if they never sued anyone.

 

[seek3r]

How A-series chips infringe VIA if it is built on ARM licenses? If that is the case, then Nvidia and Broadcom most probably infringe too?

VIA holds quite a few basic patents on CPU design and architecture. They have cross license deals with a lot of the other designers/foundries (which is how they're allowed to make x86 chips given the massive amount of IP there owned by AMD/GF and Intel, it's kinda like MAD for CPU vendors).

Via's not commonly a patent troll, so I'd believe this is a legitimate case. Apple likely stepped out of the protection available to them by being a licensee of ARM in some aspect of their chips design, and now Via wants the toll they're due.

Apple has enough money to buy all these companies. They are just fighting against apple to stay alive. Also does not mean they will win in court.

Via's not exactly a competitor to Apple....

 

[wovel]

"HTC’s co-founder and chairwoman Cher Wang, accompanied by husband Wen-Chi Chen, a CEO at VIA Technologies."

Well I did not know that. Interesting. It does make this seem a lot less legitimate.

 

[imwoblin]

I'm waiting for God to sue Apple for the Apple name. After all He invented it....

 

[skoorbevad]

Everyone wants a piece of the Apple pie, now that Apple's changed the game (several times) and the also-rans are struggling in key markets because they just can't capture consumer interest like Apple can.

Except Apple didn't do it by strong-arming.

They didn't do it by anti-competitive activity that landed them a conviction.

They didn't do it by compulsion, duress, or brute force.

They did it by creating great products, by actually giving a damn about what they put their name to, and by following this guy's vision:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaJp66ArJVI

It's that simple. And the surprising (or not so surprising) thing is, is that the also-rans still haven't figured it out, well over a decade later.

Also, suing people

 

[gnasher729]

Please tell me this, why is it when Apple is suing, they are the Noble Knight in shining Armour, defending their hard worked ideas and inventions. But when someone sues Apple, its the company:

• Being greedy
• Doing it because they're scared of Apple
• Patent Trolling
• It's must be their only source of income
• They want a piece of "Apples Pie"

And no, I will not accept "But, but Apple revolutionized xxxxx and yyyyy. This makes them above the law"

Imagine Apple sued VIA for some patent infringement. And someone claimed it is because

• Apple is being greedy
• Apple is doing it because they're scared of VIA
• Patent Trolling
• It must be Apple's only source of income
• They want a piece of "VIA Pie"

Everyone would just have a laugh.
And I'd love to see where someone has claimed Apple is above the law.

 

[*LTD*]

Also, suing people

Applying legal tests to IP isn't a problem. That's why the courts are there.

If your IP doesn't pass the tests for whatever reason, that's tough. That's part of the game.

Seems when Apple drags someone into court these days, Apple comes out ahead. That's not Apple's problem. That's a sign that the organization(s) Apple drags in to court need to get their damn act together.

Seems Apple's case as far as IP goes is pretty strong these days. It's what happens when you make sure you've got your patent ducks in a row. Maybe the also-rans should do the same, hmmmm?

 

[slrandall]

My first thought after I read this was:

******* THE PATENT TROLLS

Seriously, come on. If there was a case to be made, why wait until now?

There's a huge difference here, between Apple and others. Apple sues AS SOON AS a new device infringes on something they've patented. Samsung, VIA, all these guys have waited for years to sue. If Apple really infringed, why wait? It just makes all of you look like a******* now.

 

[delonh92]

"HTC’s co-founder and chairwoman Cher Wang, accompanied by husband Wen-Chi Chen, a CEO at VIA Technologies."

C.o.n.....spiracy !!!!

 

[BowTheMan89]

You have zero appreciation for inventors hard work.

You condone theft.

You're part of the problem, that's for sure.

Sad.

Were trying to create some sort of haiku-like poetry? or was that just for dramatic affect?

 

[chrmjenkins]

Everyone has patents on everyone else, Apple has gone on the offensive, probably forcing a dozen companies hands with preemptive lawsuits incase Apple digs up some antique patent them.

Please tell me this, why is it when Apple is suing, they are the Noble Knight in shining Armour, defending their hard worked ideas and inventions. But when someone sues Apple, its the company:

• Being greedy
• Doing it because they're scared of Apple
• Patent Trolling
• It's must be their only source of income
• They want a piece of "Apples Pie"

And no, I will not accept "But, but Apple revolutionized xxxxx and yyyyy. This makes them above the law"

This company is patent trolling, as evidenced by the immediate sell-off of the company that won against Apple. VIA has no actual interest in protecting their IP here, or there would be many, many more players added to the list that infringe the same things VIA is claiming here. The likelihood that Apple is incorporating some unique technology when all of their competitors license the same ARM library is rather small.

VIA is a company on the decline ( http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/...0-reduction-in-capital-expenditures-20090428/ ). One of their few paths to solvency is exercising the patents it thinks it has, and then selling them to companies that are attempting to fight Apple. I wouldn't be surprised if a conflict of interest allegation comes up if this patent suit wins and the assets are miraculously sold to HTC once again.

 

[Dr McKay]

Imagine Apple sued VIA for some patent infringement. And someone claimed it is because

• Apple is being greedy
• Apple is doing it because they're scared of VIA
• Patent Trolling
• It must be Apple's only source of income
• They want a piece of "VIA Pie"

Everyone would just have a laugh.
And I'd love to see where someone has claimed Apple is above the law.

This was a direct question to LTD, and it was LTD who claimed Apple should be above the law, because in his words "they're awesome"

 

[Dragonlance1561]

You know what the HUGE problem is with patenting intellectual property?
It IS actually possible for two separate people (or teams or people) to come up with the same idea (or a very similar one) without any knowledge of the other person/team. Is it not possible that whatever VIA is suing Apple for, Apple created without any knowledge that VIA had "already done it?"

Just my two Cents...

 

[Oletros]

This company is patent trolling, as evidenced by the immediate sell-off of the company that won against Apple. VIA has no actual interest in protecting their IP here, or there would be many, many more players added to the list that infringe the same things VIA is claiming here. The likelihood that Apple is incorporating some unique technology when all of their competitors license the same ARM library is rather small.

So, if a company only sues another one and not a lot it is a patent troll? Even if they produce products?

I suppose Apple has started suits against ALL Android manufactures, don't they?

 

[bbeagle]

Please tell me this, why is it when Apple is suing, they are the Noble Knight in shining Armour, defending their hard worked ideas and inventions. But when someone sues Apple, its the company:

• Being greedy
• Doing it because they're scared of Apple
• Patent Trolling
• It's must be their only source of income
• They want a piece of "Apples Pie"

And no, I will not accept "But, but Apple revolutionized xxxxx and yyyyy. This makes them above the law"

It doesn't take a fanboy to see that Apple is suing for legitimate reasons most of the time, and other companies are suing Apple for bogus reasons.

You have a clear bias against Apple. Fair and balanced does not mean that Apple suing X and X suing Apple are the same. You must look at the underlying details of the lawsuits. If I sue my neighbor because he crashed his car into my house and won't pay for it, then he sues me because my dog crapped on his lawn, did I just 'deserve' that lawsuit, thus rendering my lawsuit invalid? Come on, now. That's what you're saying.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

This is excellent news ....







... patent law really needs to be revised and all of this publicity is good for moving the USPTO toward revision.

President Obama just signed the new patent reform legislation into law last week. Once it goes into effect the U.S. system will become a "first to file" one.

 

[sjwk]

Seriously, come on. If there was a case to be made, why wait until now?

I don't know the details, and it may be as you say - however, perhaps:

* They only just acquired the relevant patent as part of a merger (I disagree with companies buying patents that they have never made anything that uses the patent solely to cash in, but don't object to a company buying another company (or their assets) that was actively using their creation).

* Apple may have been licensing the technology but did not renew the license - in which case it should apply to new products being made (whether a new or old design) from that point onwards.

But I have no idea, just pointing out a couple of options that may explain.

I suspect the Samsung one will cancel out in a cross-licensing deal: You let us make a rectangular tablet with rounded corners the same as the 2002 vintage HPs and we'll let you use our wireless technology patents No idea on the Via one as don't know what's infringing.

Steve.