This conversation should have ended years ago... Are people really still bickering?
People are still bickering about the GUI, and that started at least forty years ago.
If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
121–130 of 138 posts
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#122Re: IBM's 1993 Simon: "The e-mail app even included the ability to click on a phone number to dial it." Would that not constitute prior art in one of the patents Apple asserted against Android recently? I am only vaguely aware of the finer details so I'm probably mistaken on some point.
Actually, it would. Apple is asserting a patent (from 1996) against Android's "Linkify" functionality which does exactly that.
Other prior art would be Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb (1994/1995) for turning CamelCase into links and, my personal favorite, Netscape Navigator 2.0b1, for "Live URLs" (that recognized URLs and email addresses in mail and news text and made them clickable).
I've been following this off and on, and AFAICT, HTC didn't bring up any of these piece of prior art, which makes me seriously question the quality of their prior art searches.
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#123Re: IBM's 1993 Simon: "The e-mail app even included the ability to click on a phone number to dial it." Would that not constitute prior art in one of the patents Apple asserted against Android recently? I am only vaguely aware of the finer details so I'm probably mistaken on some point.
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Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#124I'm not sure anyone is arguing the iPhone invented all these individual technologies, and if anyone is claiming that, they shouldn't be as the evidence is overwhelming to the contrary. I think the real meat of the argument is "iPhone synthesized all those individual pieces into something coherent and incredible.". It's kind of like how the Macintosh and Lisa took the ideas from PARC, perfected them, and turned them i…
"I'm not sure anyone is arguing the iPhone invented all these individual technologies, and if anyone is claiming that, they shouldn't be as the evidence is overwhelming to the contrary." Isn't that what the current legal battle over slide to unlock is over? I'll be the first to agree that the iPhone put all the pieces together, but it seems like every other week there's a new lawsuit over some iPhone or Android featu…
The battle over slide-to-unlock is particularly ludicrous because neither Apple nor Android invented it. To the best of my knowledge that honor (in the context of a smartphone) belongs to Neonode with their N1m (though I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out someone had anticipated them, as well).
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks nothing like the iPhone and shockingly wasn't even a phone.
The first Windows Mobile phones were just WinMo PDAs with cellular radios in them. So while the iPaq isn't a phone it's the direct predecessor to many of them.
The iPaq is a particularly direct predecessor as you could get a GSM/GPRS sleeve for it.
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
So... imagine if the first company to synthesize a laptop got the eternal monopoly? Or the first company to synthesize a flatscreen?
Patents are time-limited not eternal. The first company to build a laptop most certainly obtained a patent on it, as did the creator of the first flat-screen.
Patents last for 20 years in the US. To give you an idea of how rapidly the personal computing/internet boom has progressed, Mosaic is not 20 years old yet, Mosaic being the browser that marked the start of the www era.
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#127How Similar is a Galaxy Nexus to iPhone 4S ? My question is , who is leading and who is following?
At this point that depends on what you consider important.
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#128Steve Jobs saying he's going to spend billions and billions on frivolous lawsuits should make still independent developers wary about getting boxed into his walled "ecosystem". Perhaps it's time to revise the laws on "thought property" to declaw the patent and copyright industries. We need more competition, not more "I have a lot of money therefore I get even more money" monopolies. Geez. Patent law is just turning i…
Of course, all of those lawsuits might also make independent developers think that the only "safe" place is his walled "ecosystem". Yes, you pay taxes and you live at the pleasure of the king, but at least most of the time he's more interested fighting with the enemies outside than the subjects inside.
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#129Let me put this in hacker terminology: Have you ever looked at someone else's product and said, "Well that's stupid, I could remake it in a week and it would be even better"? But even if that were true, you weren't the one who took the risk and built the damn thing. Other people here are talking about "vision" and "innovation" and while these are certainly things Apple had in abundance, the bottom line is that Samsun…
And Motorola took a risk on the cell phone in the first place and Rio took a risk (including a make-or-break lawsuit) on the first mp3 player and on and on...
Has Apple been fair to those companies by their own standard?
Re: If Android is a "stolen product," then so was the iPhone
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Patents are time-limited not eternal. The first company to build a laptop most certainly obtained a patent on it, as did the creator of the first flat-screen.
Patents last for 20 years in the US. To give you an idea of how rapidly the personal computing/internet boom has progressed, Mosaic is not 20 years old yet, Mosaic being the browser that marked the start of the www era.
If Netscape had been smart (and evil) enough to patent the hell out of their browser and then stick all those patents on a shelf for a while... they'd probably be more valuable than Apple is today.