Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 22nd Oct 2009 15:17 UTC
Remember when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, and proclaimed, to much applause, that they patented the hell out of it? Well, apparently Apple likes to boast about its own patents, but when it comes to dealing with other's they're not so willing. That is, if you believe Nokia: the largest phone manufacturer in the world has sued Apple for patent infringement.
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Member since:
2006-12-20
What kind of patents are these? If they are sensible hardware-based patents for non-obvious inventions created by Nokia, then this is a reasonable action. I think it is right that physical inventions can be patented, and if Apple ignored the patents that apply to them, well they deserve to get sued.
Of course if this basic anti-competitive patent troll behaviour then shame on Nokia. However, I feel inclined to give Nokia the benefit of the doubt at this stage, especially considering the good work they've been doing with LGPLing Qt and also for the upcoming N900, which looks very promising as a hackable Linux smartphone.
I think the "if you can't beat them, sue them" line is a bit premature, we'll have to see whether or not Nokia can beat them with the aforementioned N900 and whatever Maemo 6 devices may manifest in 2010. By this time next year I think we'll be in a better position to judge this.
I recall hearing that Nokia posted a loss for last quarter, could this action be driven by shareholder pressure based on this bad performance?