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Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war

reuters.com

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Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war

#1

Post by erinwatson »

Apple Inc scored a narrow victory against Taiwan's HTC Corp in a patent lawsuit over smartphone technology that will set the stage for further battles between rival makers in the fiercely competitive market.

Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war
reuters.com

Re: Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war

#6

Post by saturdaysaint »

Pretty small potatoes. I wonder what the Apple executives, canny competitors by most accounts, really expect to accomplish from the legal campaign. Do they mostly intend to raise the stakes for their lower margin competition? Delay major Android phones at a crucial juncture in the race? This gets negative PR in tech circles, but you wonder if it plays well to the broader public - the more respected brand is making serious claims that lesser brands are copying/stealing from them.

It's easy to cast this as a Heart-of-Darkness style deathmarch, but unfortunately, I think Apple is finding value in the whole enterprise, even if there isn't a resounding victory.

Re: Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war

#7

Post by talmand »

"Limited victory" is right, starts with 10 patents and gets reduced to one patent covering automatically linking phone numbers to bring up the dialer on click? Seems to me the result is that Apple lost rather badly in this case. This is the second time I've seen a misleading headline suggesting a Apple victory in a patent case but turns out to be a loss once you've read the details. What's the deal with that?

But really? They have a patent for making telephone numbers in a document click-able to call that number? That seems so obvious a thing to do on a phone why grant the patent? Plus, if HTC can come up with a workaround so easily and quickly doesn't that also support the thought it's an overly obvious (i.e., useless) patent? Did I understand that part correctly?

Re: Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war

#8

Post by talmand »

rheeseyb wrote: post #5

I love this quote - "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." Reminds me of that time when Apple invented the mouse-driven GUI.

You could say that about much of their products.
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