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Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

unwiredview.com

11–20 of 73 posts

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#11
post #3
post #2

The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedom for developers to develop these apps without worrying about patent infringement

Right. Because Apple never capriciously brings down the hammer on the small guy.

I'm not saying that either way - I was just pointing out the alternative. Until Apple state their intentions we won't know either way will we?

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#12
post #2

The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedom for developers to develop these apps without worrying about patent infringement

Alternatively they could allow freedom for developers on their own platform whilst aggressively pushing for licencing fees from rival platform providers. Bearing in mind their lawsuits against HTC for the alleged violation of broad and trivial patents I can't see why anyone would expect them to use it purely defensively

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#13
post #2

The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedom for developers to develop these apps without worrying about patent infringement

What if Apple skips sueing the guys on their own platform but does sue the guys making apps like this for Android? Thats more worrisome to me than the prospect of Apple using them against iPhone developers, which is probably something they would never do.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#15
post #4
post #2

The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedom for developers to develop these apps without worrying about patent infringement

I'm looking at this from the "ANYONE who tries to patent generic ideas is evil" perspective.

No offense, but that's not a very nuanced or useful way to think about the situation. It's the same line of thinking that makes 16-year-old kids declare that they'll never work for The Man. Idealistic and perhaps admirable, but not very practical.

Opposing any individual player in a game for acting in their own rational best interest is dumb. If a big company with good products didn't act defensively in these situations, they'd be eaten alive by patent trolls who have no such qualms. Until the laws are changed, these kinds of patents are a necessary evil.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#16
post #7

As bad as this seems, the best thing you can do as an aspiring developer is ignore it completely , and do whatever you're going to do anyway. The only way these patents are going to matter to you is if you hit it big enough to be worth taking to court -- it's a millionaire problem. Even then, there are lots of steps between "patent granted" and "patent successfully defended in court". You're so far from that point th…

> The only way these patents are going to matter to you is if you hit it big enough to be worth taking to court -- it's a millionaire problem.

Not really. Big companies can use patents to send a cease-and-desist letter to any small company. You don't need to be big company to be afraid of software patents.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#17
post #5

For years I've said that Apple is by far one of the scariest software companies out there. The enthusiasm for their products and CEO seems to have a blinding effect on the very same people that would normally be up in arms. I think it would be an interesting social experiment to outline many of their business practices without mention of the products, company or brand, even possibly an alias, or dummy co. and survey…

You have to think about it. If Apple were a type of government, what type would they be? Wait, Ill let you guess. Socialist Dictatorship. Think about how closed they are as a system... Would you really want a Socialist Dictatorship running your country?

This is a pretty flame-y comment. There's not much use in this comparison. It only serves to ignite the Apple fans and detracts from what could be an otherwise great conversation about this particular event.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#18
The philosophy with patents these days is that whatever you do (as a part of a big company) that hasn't been done exactly that way before, you submit an invention disclosure on it. In this sense, patents these days are used more like copyrights!

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#19
post #7

As bad as this seems, the best thing you can do as an aspiring developer is ignore it completely , and do whatever you're going to do anyway. The only way these patents are going to matter to you is if you hit it big enough to be worth taking to court -- it's a millionaire problem. Even then, there are lots of steps between "patent granted" and "patent successfully defended in court". You're so far from that point th…

> The only way these patents are going to matter to you is if you hit it big enough to be worth taking to court -- it's a millionaire problem. Not really. Big companies can use patents to send a cease-and-desist letter to any small company. You don't need to be big company to be afraid of software patents.

There have been quite a few examples of patent trolls taking exactly the opposite approach. They know they can't win a court battle against Microsoft, so they do a distributed shake down for a smaller amount on all the small vendors infringing on the patent.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#20

One thing that surprises me in the images was that one of them is exactly "Where to?" by tap tap tap: http://taptaptap.com/#whereto

Wow, it's just blatently ripped off! Wonder what else they got "inspired" by...

Direct links to the images:

taptaptap: http://taptaptap.com/img/screenshot/whereto/1.jpg

the patent: http://www.unwiredview.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Apple-... (upper right "mockup")

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