Posted on 03/02/2010 10:55:37 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
Apple is using its strong patent portfolio to fight iPhone competitors in court. Its latest target is HTC. Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the cell phone manufacturer. The suit involves “20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.”
Steve Jobs is quoted in a press release saying: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” The lawsuit itself is not available yet online. We’ve asked Apple for a copy.
The lawsuit could be a way to go after Android, although Android is not mentioned in the press release. HTC manufactures some of the most successful Android handsets, from the first G1 up to the latest Nexus One. HTC’s touchscreen Android phones are the most similar to the iPhone. If that is the case, the lawsuit is a shot across Android’s bow and a warning to all Android manufacturers.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
7362331: Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States
7479949: Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,
7657849: Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,
7469381: List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display,
5920726: System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device
7633076: Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices
5848105: GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality
7383453: Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor
5455599: Object-Oriented Graphic System
6424354: Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods
Feel free to pick over them. Already 7383453 looks suspect, as I believe suspending parts of chips existed before this was filed in 2005.
Normally, I think Apple tends to be a hegemon, but given that this is possible patent infringement, I will cut them some slack.
AFAIK, suspending parts of chips is typically done by slowing or stopping the clock for it, not by reducing voltage, as Apple's patent title suggests.
20-year patents are far too long with today's pace of innovation. It should be reduced to something around 2-5 years, IMO.
I honestly am starting to get rather angry at Apple.
This is absurd.
I like and have longed for a Macbook Pro, but frankly it’s old technology at this point when you can get a PC with twice as much for $500 less, even with Blu-ray burners built in etc.
This kind of behavior by Apple is insane. If your product is being copied, that’s a good thing...and nothing here really is something that other devices didn’t already do even if just in the lab.
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Sure Steve - just like you ripped off the interface and mouse concept from the Xerox Star. No harm in that, huh? Don Massaro and David Liddel had some choice words for you and Wozniak.
Event driven systems have been around for over 30 years. Nearly every GUI uses event listeners to handle mouse events and other user input. That's not an innovation. X Windows, MS Windows, Java and others use the paradigm. The publish/subscribe and observed/observer patterns are general frameworks for the concept.
It's sad to see the legal/patent system granting patents to old concepts. It's just an attorney employment scheme.
Apple stifling competition?!? No wai!
Fight every phone that has a touchscreen, use proprietary hardware and software, block the Hackintosh, etc.
Why produce actual better products and true innovations when you can just crush the competition in the courts.
Patent 5455599 looks absurd in the title. Computer graphics was the original application for object oriented programming.
Intel’s SpeedStep used voltage changes to save power, the Apple/IBM PPC970MP could shut off one of the cores and use lower voltage overall to cut power consumption.
Voltage scaling has been around for a long time. The question is whether applying it to individual chip components is unique.
And if you have the technology in your product patented, you're supposed to get money for the copies.
No material. No labor. No overhead. Just deposit the checks as they roll in...
Apple's patent is for a system that adjusts its OWN voltages, based on power saving settings and usage, etc..
Your motherboard doesn't do that.
(Oh, and I disagree with your description that a motherboard's voltage settings are for the purpose of controlling power consumption. Those settings are to help with overclocking.)
Qt. GTK. Both are object oriented. Both predate Apple's patents. Java's graphic system is object oriented as well. Have a look at the ESRI mapping system. It's a huge object oriented graphics system for displaying map data.
Software engineers use the Internet for research. Wanna bet Apple has someone else’s Internet postings in their software?
Most patents are absurd. They are vague or patent things others already have invented. The Patent and Trademark Office does a lousy job with ensuring patents are truly unique and original and properly documented as to be specific.
Thanks for the info.
I didn't know SpeedStep played with voltages too. I thought it was just clock rates.
That's a problem here -- Apple did produce actual better products and true innovations. Most suits I see are desperation, a company trying to use the courts to make up for the fact they couldn't compete in the market. Apple is already crushing the competition in the market.
I see Stevie is still pissed about that Windows thing.
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