ITC Judge Rules HTC Infringes Two Apple Software Patents
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 15th Jul 2011 22:47 UTC, submitted by Jennimc
Legal If you can't compete, litigate. Not entirely unsurprisingly, the US ITC has sided with a US company against a Taiwanese competitor - the US International Trade Commission judge has ruled that out of ten patents Apple brought into its suit against HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone pioneer is infringing upon two. The ruling has to be reviewed by a panel of six, but if they agree, then some HTC devices may be banned from the US market - unless HTC and Apple can come to a settlement. We also know which two patents - and yes, they're software patents, of course.
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Comment by Jennimc
by Jennimc on Fri 15th Jul 2011 23:05 UTC
Jennimc
Member since:
2011-06-22

"If you can't compete, litigate."

But Apple is competing... and competing well. That statement can be understood and (ought to be understood in my opinion) in a different way. If you can't compete... copy.


"Not entirely unsurprisingly, the US ITC has sided with a US company against a Taiwanese competitor

If a Judge doesn't hand the verdict you want... the only conclusion is that they must be biased? Seriously?


Even if you dive into these software patent filings, it still looks like incredibly generic crap we've been doing for ages, with tons and tons of prior art.

If that were the case, CERTAINLY HTC's lawyers would have brought this up in their case. Don't you think?


Then again, and you may call me cynical, but I'm not exactly surprised; a bunch of random US judges, most likely with little to no technological expertise, ruling in favour of one of the largest US companies, against a relatively small Taiwanese company.

Again with the bias accusations?


You'd hope some sort of settlement is reached between HTC and Apple, because if not, some HTC devices will be banned from the US.

A settlement would be fine if that's what they agree to. On that note, I'm all for increased competition though not at the expense of copying other's property. Why would I HOPE they would create a settlement. Actually, what we should HOPE for is for HTC to create new technology that doesn't infringe.


Apple is not a company which likes to licenses its patents, so this might actually be Apple's goal: to block competition

Wouldn't their goal be to block companies who steal their products? It's presumptuous to suggest otherwise in my opinion.


because Apple is quite clearly unable to compete against Android on merit.

You inferred this and stated it quite bluntly like this very frequently yet theres no reason to suggest as much. That Android is of greater numbers that iPhone (though not iOS) has more to do with in being available on more carriers.


These two software patents are also used in Applr's lawsuit against Motorola, but since Motorola is a US company, it will be interesting to see how it pans out there - maybe my cynicism will prove to have been misplaced.

We'll see


In any case, congratulations to His Steveness for beating a competitor not by making a better product, but by having the best lawyers in a broken system.

You're neglecting that they beat them on BOTH fronts.

Edited 2011-07-15 23:07 UTC

Reply Score: -14

RE: Comment by Jennimc
by Gusar on Fri 15th Jul 2011 23:15 in reply to "Comment by Jennimc"
Gusar Member since:
2010-07-16

"Steal their products" ?? Really?? You can't tell be you really believe the stuff you're writing. Not with a straight face you can't.

Reply Parent Score: 2

v RE[2]: Comment by Jennimc
by Jennimc on Fri 15th Jul 2011 23:17 in reply to "RE: Comment by Jennimc"
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RE: Comment by Jennimc
by kpugovkin on Fri 15th Jul 2011 23:28 in reply to "Comment by Jennimc"
kpugovkin Member since:
2011-07-05

[q]If that were the case, CERTAINLY HTC's lawyers would have brought this up in their case. Don't you think?

If I understood you right, what we have now is mostly a lawyer competition.
I bet Apple will win, because (a) Apple is US company and judges are paid from US budget; (b) sure Apple pays more to its lawyers and they should work harder.

For IT folks it’s probably time to move to some other country, where technical competition still exists.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE: Comment by Jennimc
by smashIt on Fri 15th Jul 2011 23:36 in reply to "Comment by Jennimc"
smashIt Member since:
2005-07-06

""Not entirely unsurprisingly, the US ITC has sided with a US company against a Taiwanese competitor

If a Judge doesn't hand the verdict you want... the only conclusion is that they must be biased? Seriously? "

the problem is that thom is right
if you want another example where the us of a worked against a foreign competitor just take a look at the last shootout between boing and airbus

take a guess who won the deal despite having the inferior offer ;)

Reply Parent Score: 6

RE: Comment by Jennimc
by WereCatf on Sat 16th Jul 2011 07:13 in reply to "Comment by Jennimc"
WereCatf Member since:
2006-02-15

"Even if you dive into these software patent filings, it still looks like incredibly generic crap we've been doing for ages, with tons and tons of prior art.

If that were the case, CERTAINLY HTC's lawyers would have brought this up in their case. Don't you think? "

Who says they didn't?

Actually, what we should HOPE for is for HTC to create new technology that doesn't infringe.


Have a look at the actual patents: they're very generic and there's lots and lots of prior art available. As such these patents shouldn't have even been granted in the first place.

Secondly, it's IMPOSSIBLE to create something anymore without infringing on anything. It's incredibly ignorant to just tell them that they should somehow magically invent stuff that doesn't infringe on anything when there's billions of software patents that are way too broad and way too generic.

Wouldn't their goal be to block companies who steal their products? It's presumptuous to suggest otherwise in my opinion.


It's presumptuous to suggest that HTC is stealing anything from Apple.

Reply Parent Score: 9

RE[2]: Comment by Jennimc
by danger_nakamura on Mon 18th Jul 2011 05:04 in reply to "RE: Comment by Jennimc"
danger_nakamura Member since:
2011-06-21

I regret to inform you that you have violated my patent (US 666834565, "A Method of Replying to Internet Trolls Using Logical Arguments"). Fortunately I offer licencing options for the use of this technique under RAND terms. A representative will be contacting you shortly to help bring you into compliance. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and for helping to foster innovation by providing me with plenty of money.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE: Comment by Jennimc
by somebody on Sat 16th Jul 2011 17:13 in reply to "Comment by Jennimc"
somebody Member since:
2005-07-07

this is request for OSNews, not answer.

can we get "-1 OMFG, what stupidity" tagging of some comments? there is simply no way to tag OP comment and compliment it with full glory of its nonsense

Reply Parent Score: 5

RE[2]: Comment by Jennimc
by _txf_ on Sat 16th Jul 2011 17:59 in reply to "RE: Comment by Jennimc"
_txf_ Member since:
2008-03-17

can we get "-1 OMFG, what stupidity" tagging of some comments? there is simply no way to tag OP comment and compliment it with full glory of its nonsense


It would appear that you just did.

However that sets a really bad precedent. As stupid as that comment might be lets err on the side of restrain shall we...

Reply Parent Score: 2

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