Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#41

Post by fpgeek » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 5:10 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #35

LVB wrote: post #12

Hey, Apple et al., here's an innovative idea: let's all agree to start the next thing from the most effective version of the last thing. We might all benefit. (I wonder how Wikipedia would be doing if we weren't allowed to modify others' entries?)

Apple's probably fine with that as long as the maker of the next thing pays the maker of the last thing.

I'm not sure how you get that from this case. Apple isn't offering to license the patents to HTC (even though HTC has made it clear they'd love to do that). Instead, Apple is trying to get HTC's products banned from the US market.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#42

Post by patrickgzill » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 5:14 AM UTC

jacobolus wrote: post #13

ddlatham wrote: post #2

Here's the patent in question, #5,946,647, filed Feb. 1, 1996: http://www.google.com/patents/US5946647 "A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data... uses a pattern analysis unit ... to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. .... Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected st…

The best example of prior art that I know is Simson Garfinkel’s SBook, originally developed in 1991. Any steps required to get from Simson’s idea to Apple’s version seem (conceptually) trivial and obvious. http://simson.net/ref/sbook5/ It’s remarkable to me how much better SBook is at dealing with info like address book entries than anything mainstream today, 20 years later.

yes, I distinctly remember being quite amazed at SBook, when I used it on a NeXT machine in 1995. A year before this patent.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#43

Post by thezilch » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 6:10 AM UTC

Any device that has a browser that can detect [regex] structures and infer actions (ex. Chrome's omnibox)... or any device that detects header structures and infers actions of the following markup (ex. text/html links)... TIL Apple invented regex interfaces.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#44

Post by tsotha » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 6:53 AM UTC

Steko wrote: post #14

untog wrote: post #3

And it goes back, and forth, and back, and forth, and In other news, "Samsung adds four more complaints to its German patent offensive against Apple": http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/19/2646835/samsung-apple-ger... I would love for someone at one of these companies to explain how on earth this benefits the consumer.

The pro-IP argument from Apple's point of view goes something like this: In a world where everyone just copies everyone else freely (e.g. the desktop PC world) there is/would be much less innovation. The investments that go into many breakthrough products (iphone, ipad) are made with the understanding that IP protections are in place to prevent copycats from waltzing in and taking all the benefits later on. Take away…

>The investments that go into many breakthrough products (iphone, ipad) are made with the understanding that IP protections are in place to prevent copycats from waltzing in and taking all the benefits later on.

But what was the breakthrough? The iPhone and iPad are successful because of design, attention to detail, and Apple's marketing muscle. There isn't anything technically earth shattering about either product - they're just minor improvements on other companies' products brought to a high polish.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#45

Post by JoshTriplett » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 7:12 AM UTC

And this gives you an example of what we can expect from the ITC, which the OPEN act (the proposed "compromise" in place of SOPA) claims we can trust to censor websites. Quality work here, really engendering trust.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#46

Post by bad_user » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 7:19 AM UTC

Apple-Guy wrote: post #36

libraryatnight wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My knee-jerk, emotional, response is to agree with you because from my perspective: they aren't working to win consumers by building the best product, they either buy-out the technology they want or stomp competing technology with patents. The biggest players cost each other billions hoping to cripple each others ability to compete, or eradicate the competing product altogether. Yes, we get a phone out of it, but tha…

You are confusing Google with Apple. Apple doesn't make money on its App Store. It has a great app store to sell devices. In contrast, Google gives away adware products to earn more money (by tracking and spying on Android users).

The iTunes App Store doesn't work on anything else other than iOS. It's a complementary product that keeps people buying iDevices. It also keeps people buying from iTunes in general and Apple does make money from selling content.

     Google gives away adware products to 
     earn more money (by tracking and spying on 
     Android users).

Oh please, like Apple isn't doing it. They've got the biggest, most important online content store. They've got customers by their balls in a way that Microsoft only dreams of.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#47

Post by thewileyone » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 7:47 AM UTC

TechNewb wrote: post #39

thewileyone wrote: post #24

Apple == US company HTC == Taiwan company Any surprise why the US International Trade Commission bans HTC?

Check Apple patents, check HTC patents. Apple is responsible for bringing the PC to mass market, and the touch interface. HTC has gone from clone PC maker to premium Android phone maker, and many companies think Android is a clone, as the name implies. Any notion of national preference is silly, HTC simply is the newest company, and thus has the fewest patents, making it the easiest android OEM to sue. Please support…

Check HTC history. They've been the OEM makers for many smartphones before Apple came out with the iPhone. They made Windows CE and Windows Mobile phones for years. Only when Android was available commercially, they switched to Android.

Touch interface? Apple deployed capacitive touch commercially, but resistive touch has been out for a very long time.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#48

Post by lambda » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 8:15 AM UTC

Gigablah wrote: post #37

lambda wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tracking numbers have a lot more digits than phone numbers; do they actually get detected as such? I've never seen it happen. I have, however, found it useful to tap on an address to bring it up in Google Maps or a phone number to open it in the dialer.

Skype's browser extension does this to phone numbers on webpages; does this mean they're violating the Apple patent as well?

Possibly, but pure software patents tend to be harder to go after than software coupled with hardware (like mobile devices).

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#49

Post by shellehs » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 8:22 AM UTC

TechNewb wrote: post #39

thewileyone wrote: post #24

Apple == US company HTC == Taiwan company Any surprise why the US International Trade Commission bans HTC?

Check Apple patents, check HTC patents. Apple is responsible for bringing the PC to mass market, and the touch interface. HTC has gone from clone PC maker to premium Android phone maker, and many companies think Android is a clone, as the name implies. Any notion of national preference is silly, HTC simply is the newest company, and thus has the fewest patents, making it the easiest android OEM to sue. Please support…

Aye。

HTC also under MS's patent sue.

Jobs wants to wipe Android out of the world, and HTC maybe the easiest step.

Re: Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission

#50

Post by einhverfr » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 9:22 AM UTC

ddlatham wrote: post #2

Here's the patent in question, #5,946,647, filed Feb. 1, 1996: http://www.google.com/patents/US5946647 "A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data... uses a pattern analysis unit ... to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. .... Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected st…

That sounds broad enough to cover syntax coloring in VIM and Visual Studio......