Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#71

Post by korch » Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 8:35 AM UTC

prodigal_erik wrote: post #70

korch wrote: post #69

What ever happened to Apple taking the lead, standing up, and doing the right thing, damn the consequences? One of the reasons why Apple fans have been so fanatical about Apple products is because they know Apple will do the right thing. Unlike say, Microsoft. So now Apple is just like any other evil, scheming mega-corp. It's pretty sad actually. Like the day the music died, Apple software has died.

When has Apple ever indulged in idealism? They support a hellhole of a manufacturing plant, they willingly implemented DRM before complaining about it, everything they've made for decades has been disposable and hostile to tinkerers, and now they are starting a dystopian software market that's authoritarian in ways Microsoft never even dared.

Hmm, after you put it that way, you are right of course. I think you just broke my Reality Distortion Field!

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#72

Post by theBobMcCormick » Wed, Aug 04, 2010, 12:43 AM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #53

theBobMcCormick wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually been wondering a lot lately why isn't democracy held as an ideal for companies? With the amount of power that large corporations have, why do we as a society not hold them to higher standards and require them to be governed more democratically?

Because the nothing would ever be done.

Then why do we run countries that way? If "benevolent dictatorship" is good enough for giant multinationals, why isn't it good enough for nations? If it isn't good enough for nations, why is it good enough for multinationals that have as much or more power than many nations?

Re: Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas

#73

Post by timr » Thu, Aug 05, 2010, 5:06 PM UTC

ergo98 wrote: post #27

timr wrote: post #7

As bad as this seems, the best thing you can do as an aspiring developer is ignore it completely , and do whatever you're going to do anyway. The only way these patents are going to matter to you is if you hit it big enough to be worth taking to court -- it's a millionaire problem. Even then, there are lots of steps between "patent granted" and "patent successfully defended in court". You're so far from that point th…

>The only way these patents are going to matter to you is ...if you want financing. The investment community keeps a close eye on patents, because it's a major potential liability. >Obviously, I don't know if Apple is being defensive or offensive here, but it's pretty difficult to imagine them going from retail hardware company to professional patent troll It's easy to imagine. Microsoft went through exactly the same…

"...if you want financing."

Not really. Patent litigation tends to come out of nowhere. Investors don't know about applicable patents unless the patents are particularly high-profile (like certain video compression patents) -- in which case, they're probably known to everyone in advance, and part of the business plan.

I'd wager that most internet startups are violating at least one software patent, but that doesn't stop investment in the slightest. And while you could argue that these patents by Apple poison the well for future iPhone app developers, these particular patents are all extremely similar to popular iPhone apps. If you tried to pitch these ideas to an investor, you'd get laughed out of the room for other reasons.