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Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

venturebeat.com

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Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#71

Post by exit »

alain94040 wrote: post #69

I read patent 5,946,647. It's actually a smart patent. It was written in 1996, and it basically describes what the Mail app on my Mac does when it sees a phone number or a date in an email: it automatically detects it and gives me contextual choices, such as move the phone number into my address book (automatically extracting the sender's name), or create an appointement based on a piece of text that says "let's talk…

it's a completely trivial idea and apple just happens to be the clown that handed in their paper work first. or bought the stamped paper work from whoever. i've lost a lot of respect for apple for trying to leverage this patent.

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#72

Post by fauigerzigerk »

raganwald wrote: post #32

There are three salient questions: First, is Apple a troll seeking rents or a functioning entity that invests in research and seeks to make money from products? Second, are the patents valid given the current patent system and laws (prior art, obviousness, &c) or not. And third, is the current system broken? I think there's room to debate the second and third points. But with respect to the first point, Apple is usin…

I think the current system is inconsistent, totally broken and unfit for purpose for various reasons that have been discussed at length. But even accepting the law as it stands, it is very clear that the obviousness test is not applied correctly.

I have read some software patents (not this one) and all of them were completely obvious to me. They do not have to be obvious to a judge, they have to be obvious to "one of ordinary skill in the art". That's exactly what I am.

All of the above is not Apple's fault and I don't blame them for patenting what is essentially the context menu. But it is Apple's choice to use patents in a defensive way or to act aggressively against their competitors.

Yes they are a for profit company and it is their right to act in that way. But it is a very short sighted decision that hurts the profitability and innovative power of this entire industry. It is also short sighted because being seen as a nasty, destructive force that deems it appropriate and necessary to act in ways that are seen as unfair and anticompetitive by almost everybody can be the downfall of the mightiest companies as Microsoft and IBM can attest to.

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#73

Post by ajays »

17 year software patents make absolutely no sense. The computer world changes fast (insert Moore's Law, etc.). 17 years ago, the Web was tiny. Most people didn't have cellphones. "Broadband" was a 19.2kbaud modem.

If we're going to have software patents, there should be a separate category for them; and they should be limited to, say, 5 years tops.

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#74

Post by dataminer »

HTC has bought S3 graphics, which has successfully gone after Apple at ITC. ITC has found Apple infringing on two S3 graphics patents (final verdict in November). Now, HTC has been found infringing on two Apple patents (final verdict in December), will it force the two companies into cross licensing.

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#75

Post by [deleted] »

orangecat wrote: post #59
econgeeker wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like the patent system, I have a sympathetic ear. I have issues with it as well. I've yet to see any proposals for an alternative, though, and an alternative would require amending the constitution. If you're going to abuse the system to push competitors out of the market, you can do this with every competitor. Apple has not sued RIM, Palm, Microsoft, or any of the feature phones that -- from an abusive,…

There were no touch screen phones prior to the iPhone announcement. Nope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada_%28KE850%29 , among several others. Apple took an existing idea and executed it well. By your standards, they should be sued out of existence. Calling this "abuse" communicates to me that you think when it comes to software, people should be able to copy whatever they want. If by "copy" you mean "create pro…

[deleted]

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#76

Post by FiddlerClamp »

alain94040 wrote: post #69

I read patent 5,946,647. It's actually a smart patent. It was written in 1996, and it basically describes what the Mail app on my Mac does when it sees a phone number or a date in an email: it automatically detects it and gives me contextual choices, such as move the phone number into my address book (automatically extracting the sender's name), or create an appointement based on a piece of text that says "let's talk…

I wonder if ACT had that functionality at the time...or the Newton, a bit earlier.

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#77

Post by sek »

raganwald wrote: post #39
sek wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are abusing the patent system to push competitors out of the market. They used a trivial patent to do this, these things are not valid in Europe. These things are not a problem for the real innovation guys the USA likes so much. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2729720

So is your argument that patents are ok, and a functional entity suing a patent violator is ok, but this specific patent is not ok? Or that patents are ok, but using them to push competitors violating the patents out of the market is not ok? Or that patents altogether are not ok?

I just mean software patents, this is the reason why i mentioned Europe.

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#78

Post by ww520 »

alain94040 wrote: post #69

I read patent 5,946,647. It's actually a smart patent. It was written in 1996, and it basically describes what the Mail app on my Mac does when it sees a phone number or a date in an email: it automatically detects it and gives me contextual choices, such as move the phone number into my address book (automatically extracting the sender's name), or create an appointement based on a piece of text that says "let's talk…

I seem to remember Lotus Agenda did that long time ago back in the PC era. Should that be a prior art?

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#79

Post by [deleted] »

econgeeker wrote: post #41
sek wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are abusing the patent system to push competitors out of the market. They used a trivial patent to do this, these things are not valid in Europe. These things are not a problem for the real innovation guys the USA likes so much. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2729720

If you don't like the patent system, I have a sympathetic ear. I have issues with it as well. I've yet to see any proposals for an alternative, though, and an alternative would require amending the constitution. If you're going to abuse the system to push competitors out of the market, you can do this with every competitor. Apple has not sued RIM, Palm, Microsoft, or any of the feature phones that -- from an abusive,…

[deleted]

Re: Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary

#80

Post by patentavenger »

One of the patents is for registering regular expressions to extract telephone numbers and contact information out of documents. This is a stupid patent for several reasons:

#1 It's bloody obvious. Pretty much everyone reinvents it (Microsoft Smart Links anyone?) SMS->Extract Phone number, etc

#2 It's so bloody obvious that there is prior open-source applications prior to 1996 that have this feature (turning phone numbers in web documents into clickable action links/context actions) I will say no more, but I have one in my possession.

#3 It's bloody LAME! Really Apple, you want consumers to not be able to use ANY Android device based on the ability to turn text links into actions that was originally issues for the NeXT Desktop? Is that really the competitive advantage between the iPhone and other devices, that it has phone number detection in text documents!?!?

Apple has proven with this that they are a patent troll. Are they suing over iPhone exclusive inventions, like multitouch, proximity sensor, using accelerometers to detect orientation, the "Swipe to Unlock" stuff and all of the things we saw in the original Jesus Phone presentation?

No.

They are trying to hurt competition over something developed for the desktop in 1996.

Total losers.

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