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Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

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Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#31
post #24

The Galaxy Nexus is stock Android. Apple is suing Samsung because of stock Android software - not firmware, not hardware, but software. Is there a legal reason Apple is suing Samsung instead of Google, or is it tactical / political?

Because Samsung is shipping a device with the software. Parent law does require that the patent be tied to a physical device. IANAL.

Indeed. Source code is speech, and speech cannot infringe patents. (Not saying this is logical, that's just what the case law says.)

That's why you can build an mp3 player from source without paying the license fee, but Debian can't ship you a compiled mp3 player.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#32
post #4

I'm starting to hate Apple more and more. Apple: Are your products so terrible that you have to force people to buy them by preventing any other competition? I think it may be time for high profile developers to boycott Apple till they stop acting like this.

Are your products so terrible that you have to force people to buy them by preventing any other competition? Let’s say I invent and patent carbon fibre and start making bicycles out of it. My bicycles are vastly superior to lightweight steel, aluminium, and scandium framed models on the market. Are my products terrible? Obviously not! Now my competitors rush out to make carbon fibre bicycles of their own. I sue. Am I…

Consider for a minute how much tech is in the iPhone that was not invented by Apple. They were standing on the shoulders of decades of telecommunications and computer science research, perfected an existing invention (there were touchscreen devices before) and patented the hell out of it. Should all other cellphone manufacturers suddenly be locked out of the industry? Shouldn't patents benefit society, instead of enabling one company to hold an entire industry hostage with dubious claims?

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#33
This is a sad news. One that feels me with disdain. The conceptual patent thing is such a farce.

Didn't google just reduce the price of this phone to $349. I am pretty sure it was not due to lack of demand. The phone is beautiful, feels different then previous versions of Android and looks different then Apple's iPhone. The judge involved here is the same judge who did the same thing to Galaxy Tab (which sucked anyway). But doing this to such a good phone which could have brought smartphone to life of millions of people is shameful. Its not the intellectual property , its a anti-competitive move.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#34
post #3
post #2

>According to Judge Koh, “Apple has articulated a plausible theory of irreparable harm” in its argument against Samsung and the Galaxy Nexus, because of “long-term loss of market share” along with “losses of downstream sales.” This is not what "irreparable harm" used to mean. Apple's lawyers are celebrating tonight. EDIT: If I plan to kill a cat, and you file a lawsuit to stop me, the judge may issue an injunction fo…

Of course it is. Apple can't get back lost sales and revenue as a result of patent infringement by their direct competitor.

I think it's unfortunate that taligent has been downvoted into the negatives, because he (or she) is correct.

How much is market leadership worth? How big of a check would Apple have to write RIM to restore their market advantage? How big of a check would Apple have to write Nokia to put them back where they were in the marketplace 4 years ago?

I'd argue that there is no check large enough to restore a lost market advantage. If Apple won their current market position through innovation, and Samsung is eroding it by taking advantage of that innovation counter to patent law, there's no reasonable amount Samsung could pay to set things to right.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Following from that logic, what about the harm that Apple is doing to the Android ecosystem by preventing the sale of these phones when they are supposed to be sold? If Apple can't prove what it claims, then what of the phones that are not sold in the meantime? Is that equivalent to the value of the bond? Where does that money go? Disclaimer: I am in no way a lawyer, but I think my familiarity with law is about the s…

Samsung derived the bond amount which did seem awfully low at $96 million.

How many Galaxy Nexus devices do ou think Samsung is likely to sell? It's older hardware.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#36
Apple is implicitly admitting Samsung is a huge threat to them.

Apple has intelligent people making these decisions. So they know in their heart of hearts that the patents they hold are overly broad to the point of bogusness. They know that the majority of the tech market is also intelligent enough to come to this same realization. They have an awareness that lawsuits exercising these quasi-bogus patents will have a negative impact on Apple's public image. Therefore, the only logical reason for going through with the lawsuits is because they have concluded that the alternative -- letting Samsung + Google have their way in the mobile market -- would be far more damaging to Apple.

Apple's interests aside, is this good for society at large? Doubtful.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#37
post #2

>According to Judge Koh, “Apple has articulated a plausible theory of irreparable harm” in its argument against Samsung and the Galaxy Nexus, because of “long-term loss of market share” along with “losses of downstream sales.” This is not what "irreparable harm" used to mean. Apple's lawyers are celebrating tonight. EDIT: If I plan to kill a cat, and you file a lawsuit to stop me, the judge may issue an injunction fo…

It is irreparable harm considering they can't get back the monopoly/leading market-share effect at this very young stage of the tablet market.

i.e. Sales and profits now is a lot more important than Sales and Money later.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#38
What A Patent Hell.

FYI: The patents held against Android:

1. A means of detecting and marking up data like a phone number or an e-mail address, and then initiating a phone call or an e-mail when the linked data is clicked

2. A means of searching multiple databases and sources for data.

3. A slide to unlock feature.

4. An autocorrect-type function that completes the word as a user types and allows the user to accept or reject the word.

This must be a joke!

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#39
Do anyone here thinks that it will lead to rise in sales of Galaxy Nexus for remaining stock and it will sell very very quickly. Couple of my friends are already ordering one. If this patent battle turns out to be farce for Apple, this could be lightning in dark clouds.

Re: Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus

#40
Does this kind of thing make anyone happy? Does anyone feel better about Apple the company because of this?

It would be nice if supposedly innovative companies could, you know, just keep innovating instead of worrying about copycats catching up on stale technology (in this case, I don't think it's even clear that there is any sort of copycat-like activity).

Apple makes a few excellent products, but this kind of thing lowers my impression of the brand overall.

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