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Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

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141–150 of 554 posts

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#141
"Pretty much anyone out there is infringing," said Rockstar's CEO, John Veschi.

Well, that's pretty damning. If it's true, then it indicates that the patents never should have issued in the first place. If the overwhelming majority of "Anyone out there" managed to independently re-invent these alleged "inventions" without reference to the patent, then that seems to point out that whatever inventive step may have been involved was obvious.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#142
post #61

It's a little early to say for sure, but I predict this will do more to hurt Apple's reputation in the tech community than anything they've done before. And that is not a good community to alienate. I would not be surprised if they look back on this move one day and feel that they ended up net worse off as a result. Apple used to be careful not to alienate hackers. And Microsoft has been gradually digging itself out…

I agree that this will hurt Apple's reputation, but, in my opinion, this should already have been "priced in". Apple never really repented after the "look-and-feel" lawsuit. Many hackers just didn't notice because they were an underdog climbing out of a deep hole for so long.

Now that the worm has turned and Apple has their do-over we can see that they never changed their spots. They just improved their legal tactics.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#143
post #90
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing you realize it now. Better now than later. Do take action if you are serious about the philosophical implications of your work. Anyway, we can see that even in the absence of Steve Jobs, Apple is certainly serious about "going nuclear on Android". They'll follow their former leader's thinking even beyond the grave. That's sad.

Probably because they can see what happened with PCs happening again. If they don't fight android with everything they have now then in 5 or 10 years they might not have the chance.

All of this assumes that Android is Windows and that another open source platform, such as Firefox OS or Ubuntu Touch, wouldn't be available to pose any challenge to Android. The mobile sphere is probably dynamic enough to support such changes.

If the FOSS projects in mobile work hard enough now, they can eat into Android's market share, at least in the developing world. We shouldn't consider Android's position to be unshakeable.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#144
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly starting to regret choosing to learn Objective-C now. I am seriously considering learning Android development and ditching my Macbook / iPhone for a Nexus 5 and some sort of linux distro. People like me are making this whole situation significantly worse by contributing software to Apple's platform.

Good thing you realize it now. Better now than later. Do take action if you are serious about the philosophical implications of your work. Anyway, we can see that even in the absence of Steve Jobs, Apple is certainly serious about "going nuclear on Android". They'll follow their former leader's thinking even beyond the grave. That's sad.

"even" beyond the grave?

They're onto the desperate measures now because without Steve they can't hit their revenue targets through actually making better products.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#145

Please, make it stop. Make it stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP. How many billions of dollars are these companies going to flush down the drain on legal fees that could be better spent doing just about anything else? >When Wired visited Rockstar's Ontario headquarters, it found 10 reverse-engineering experts, working daily to take apart products and find patent infringement. >With just a few dozen employee…

Pretty sure the untaxable offshore holdings of all of these guys are a drop in the bucket in legal fees. This is just a sideshow.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dare they! And how dare Linus Torvalds "dump" Linux on the industry, or Mozilla "dump" Firefox. They should be required by law to charge high fees!

I wouldn't rush to that analogy. Microsoft dumped IE and we mostly agree that that was kind of dirty. From another angle, Google is trying to leverage one monopoly in order to break into another, and they did it by poorly copying the iPhone. There aren't really any "good guys" in this picture, but I at least give Microsoft a nod for trying (and failing) to do something different.

There really are good guys and bad guys here. Lumping them all together is false equivalence.

Google isn't "dumping" by giving Android away for free. They have a different business model, and it makes money. It also keeps the competition sharp. Nothing wrong with that.

What's shitty is that Microsoft and Apple are doing everything in their power to delay and destroy innovation for their own benefit.

Google's actions have accelerated innovation. Android has been good for customers, good for Google, and good for the industry.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#148
post #118
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hang on a sec, if the patents are found valid, and Google etc. are found infringing, then they have s/broken the law/failed make appropriate agreements so that they are then allowed by the owner of the monopoly defined by the claims to use the defined invention, and are now liable to a civil suite from the owner of said patents in order to exercise their exclusive right granted by the ownership of a letters patent/.…

You don't understand how patents work. Patents allow you to prevent someone else from selling a product that is covered by your patent. But to do so; you have to get a court order and show that the product in question is covered by the patent in question. It's not a question of whether the defendant is doing something illegal; it's a question of whether the rights the plaintiff asserts are valid. Of course, once the…

Right you are, a small slip on my part. To clarify for anyone playing along, a granted patent doesn't make using the invention illegal, but it does mean the owner of the patent how the right to a)exclude you from using it if they so choose, and b) they may also seek reparations due to potentially lost income from someone making use of their invention. (as well as other stuff)

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dare they! And how dare Linus Torvalds "dump" Linux on the industry, or Mozilla "dump" Firefox. They should be required by law to charge high fees!

I wouldn't rush to that analogy. Microsoft dumped IE and we mostly agree that that was kind of dirty. From another angle, Google is trying to leverage one monopoly in order to break into another, and they did it by poorly copying the iPhone. There aren't really any "good guys" in this picture, but I at least give Microsoft a nod for trying (and failing) to do something different.

> they did it by poorly copying the iPhone.

Sigh.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#150
post #61

It's a little early to say for sure, but I predict this will do more to hurt Apple's reputation in the tech community than anything they've done before. And that is not a good community to alienate. I would not be surprised if they look back on this move one day and feel that they ended up net worse off as a result. Apple used to be careful not to alienate hackers. And Microsoft has been gradually digging itself out…

> hurt Apple's reputation in the tech community than anything they've done before

They're not the ones suing Google. Rockstar's a separate entity with its own corp leadership that has incentives to find ways to recoup their investment.

>Apple used to be careful not to alienate hackers.

Google and their monopolistic practices and their anti-competition ploys is what has alienated more hackers than Apple ever will.

>Now in my mind they are both the enemy.

The only enemy is Google. They completely disregard intellectual property of others and attack everyone else's revenue streams by offering free products and refuse to pay IP licenses for anything.

Google's the most evil corporation today and it's sad that you, of all people, don't see it. Look closer Paul… they're the big brother everyone warned us about!

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