Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

unwiredview.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 73 posts

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#41

Post by dejb »

stanleydrew wrote: post #17
spoiledtechie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

I don't get how mentioning the political angle of the sentiment expressed in the parent post somehow makes it flamey.

Both platforms and governments represent ways of coordinating the productivity of numerous participants. Although there are differences it seems reasonable to think that lessons learned in one sphere may very well transfer to the other. If you believe that central planning is the most effective method for a platform (both hardware and software) then isn't it reasonable to ask why this wouldn't translate to the wider economy as well?

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#43

Post by jlgosse »

Timothee wrote: post #34
sachinag wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd have to pry it from Disney.

I think you're mistaking tap tap tap and Tapulous, no? Tapulous is the maker of the Tap Tap Revenge series that was recently bought by Disney. tap tap tap is another very successful iPhone app company but to my knowledge they haven't been bought out. (and with their huge marketing machine, they would let it be known)

After thinking about it and talking with some of my colleagues, I think it would be less of a talent acquisition and more of an IP acquisition. And it would have to be a pretty valuable one at this point, as taptaptap are making some serious cash right now.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#44

Post by pfarrell »

Gary Kildall refused to develop anything like a word processor application for CP/M because, basically, that way leads to evil and corruption. MS, of course, beat him out in the IBM deal and dominated with exactly that recipe.

Everything old is new again.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#45

Post by gbhn »

timr wrote: post #15
char wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 situati…

A complication with patent trolls is that they're immune to defensive patents: they don't practice, so they can't be countersued or bargained with. I think you probably mean "other companies that develop mobile apps." In this case, especially in the context of the direct copy of the TapTapTap app as shown above, it looks like this means "our own developers."

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#46

Post by natrius »

dejb wrote: post #41
stanleydrew wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

I don't get how mentioning the political angle of the sentiment expressed in the parent post somehow makes it flamey. Both platforms and governments represent ways of coordinating the productivity of numerous participants. Although there are differences it seems reasonable to think that lessons learned in one sphere may very well transfer to the other. If you believe that central planning is the most effective method…

It's not a useful comparison. Companies aren't run like governments, where democracy is usually held as the ideal. The comment wasn't useful, but it was inflammatory. I don't think the commenter had bad intentions, but I agree with stanleydrew's judgment.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#47

Post by joshwa »

Timothee wrote: post #10

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

I work for a major online retailer, and their mobile shopping patent application appears to have lifted screens from our mobile shopping app. I've forwarded this story to our head of merchandising to see if we will submit our prior art on this...

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#49

Post by vaporstun »

While I'm certainly not a fan of this like most commenters here, am I the only one that is of the opinion that instead of hating Apple, we should hate the broken US Patent system?

While it disgusts me that they are able to patent these things, they are operating within the current rules of the patent system, and one could argue that if they didn't do so, someone else may come along and patent the same things. The phrase "don't hate the player, hate the game" comes to mind. In fact, they could be running afoul of their duty to their shareholders if they did not make their best effort within the law to protect their intellectual property. They could be altruistic and morally correct as many people here seem to wish they would, but someone else could come along, file the same silly patent, and succeed then bring a suit against Apple for infringement. We should all be sending letters to the USPTO or Congress, not Apple for this atrocity.

Further, it is important to keep in mind that these are patent applications that have been FILED, but are not patents that have been ISSUED. There is a big difference there. I could file an application for a patent on a pencil, but it will not become an issued patent because that's bogus. Likewise for these, they may well get rejected for being unpatentable subject matter.

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#50

Post by theBobMcCormick »

natrius wrote: post #46
dejb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get how mentioning the political angle of the sentiment expressed in the parent post somehow makes it flamey. Both platforms and governments represent ways of coordinating the productivity of numerous participants. Although there are differences it seems reasonable to think that lessons learned in one sphere may very well transfer to the other. If you believe that central planning is the most effective method…

It's not a useful comparison. Companies aren't run like governments, where democracy is usually held as the ideal. The comment wasn't useful, but it was inflammatory. I don't think the commenter had bad intentions, but I agree with stanleydrew's judgment.

I've actually been wondering a lot lately why isn't democracy held as an ideal for companies? With the amount of power that large corporations have, why do we as a society not hold them to higher standards and require them to be governed more democratically?
Post reply on HN