Isn't this what Apple seek to do? Isnt the whole sorry mess caused by spurious patents which seek to severely limit the scope other companies have in releasing their own products.

Apple just want everything their own way. They buy all these ridiculous patents which they expect to enforce, yet they do not want to recognize anyone else's patents. They are new trying to dictate what if any licensing fee they should have to pay

I think this sums up scumbag apple's attitudes

" If Apple can't dominate a market, then they should be provided with an equal playing field where they dictate the terms"

Apple started this by suing their competition trying to get rid of their products so more people buy their over-priced iSh!te devices.
Now companies are suing Apple. Serves Apple right.
Having used both an iPhone and various Android phones, I would pick an Android device each time.


That is what Apple want, Get a company to develop something, copy it, but change it just enough to be able to patent it, and then sue the company that created it claiming that they copied their ideas.

Surprised they didn't launch legal action against ITV claiming that they are using their name.

There's a big difference. Smartphones can still exist without slide to unlock, pinch to zoom, unified search, and all the other features covered by the non-standards essential utility patents that Apple are asserting.

Smartphones can't exist, however, without access to mobile networks. How companies with standards-essential patents use these patents is increasingly coming under scrutiny from competition regulators.

Except that there isn't a company called ITV to sue. In any case, the name would have to be registered with a lower-case 'i', which is the special distinction of Apple's product names.

They might be more likely to complain about the BBC's use of iPlayer

Problem is that neither Apple or Samsung really invented anything, or HTC either. They just used their wealth to buy up companies (and therefore patents) where the really clever people worked.

Its really just a case of who has bought the best, or most enforcable, patents.

Apple, in its position as wealthiest company in the world, has currently done best with its purchases.

The other concern is where companies go off and patent something that everyone has been using for years - and then seek to enforce it ! "oblong phone with rounded corners" springs to mind .... luckily that one, I believe, got rejected by the courts.

Decent smartphones that bring in interest from the consumer cannot exist without those you have quoted. By patenting such things as pinch to zoom, unified search, all innovations not done by Apple, yet Apple were first to patent......do you honestly think total dominance or healthy competition was at the forefront of their mind here.....totally limits what competitors can do with products.

Please demonstrate workable, attractive alternatives to what Apple claim is theirs and theirs alone (but may licence it for 50 dollars a handset). I cant and even workarounds by Samsung and HTC has not placated the Cupertino company.

Because apple pinched them then patented them themselves.

Well enough new technologies that Apple devices are full of Samsung parts!!

FRAND, i was saying in general as a few posters will soon be along to jump on me. FRAND is described here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasona...tory_licensing

well that's not true is it.

karma's a bitch is short hand for the humorous nature of irony. that apple created this culture of patent war and it is joyous that it might bite them on the arse.

i don't approve of burglary, but if i read a story about how a burglar was burgled, it might fetch a wry smile.

you can see that right?

And here's one of them

So, are you suggesting its fair for apple to nab other people ideas, patent them themselves, then have the absolute gall to sue anyone who uses them as well?

Oddly, you expect companies who spent billions on R+D to hand its tech to a company who makes its living from robbing people?

I don't blame companies to be honest for trying to block apple. Bloody disgrace of a company.

Exactly!!

They want everyone else out!

Which apple designed none of yet are suing everyone for using them.


Well frankly, tough. They came into the phone industry with all guns blazing, nabbing things from other people and not paying out for it properly. If they want to survive, work with people instead of suing.

Well, we should wait and see if the judge sees the patents as FRAND. Anyway a company should respect a status quo and not decide to ignore it.

Wow, the hypocrisy in this thread is mind blowing.

Oh I'm pretty sure there is! The ITV plc possibly? Also listed on the stock exchange as ITV... http://www.itvplc.com/investors/share-price

The lower case wouldn't matter anyway. Its still pinching someone else's name.


Yet the reason they haven't is because they don't own the lower case i before a product name

Umm, they handed it over voluntarily when they agreed to provide it to anyone on fair, reasonable and non-discrimatory terms. If they didn't want to do that then they shouldn't have participated in the standards setting processes in the first place.


I don't have anything against anyone challenging Apple, it's just very sad and desperate that HTC, along with Samsung and Motorola have so little in their own innovation cupboards that they have to resort to illegal and anti-competitive practices to try to extort unfair settlements out of others.

I may have made no secret of the fact that I support Apple on some issues, but at least my position is consistent and considered. The hypocrisy you've displayed in this thread has only served to expose you as bigot.

Sad really.

That all depends upon the type of patent. If it is a FRAND patent then it must be licenced on reasonable terms. If HTC are trying to licence a FRAND patent for $100 then they would not win. If they refused to licence a frand patent then they would not win. If it is covered under SEP (ie in the 4G standard) yet they did not disclose this to the court or the patent office then they would not win. It's not as black and white as you would like to think.

Actually, it hasnt. What it has done is shown to us the people who see apple as still doing no wrong whatsoever!!

I have supported apple on the decision to sue Samsung based on the S1. That's as far as it goes though. Everything else by apple is just a pathetic attempt to push everyone else out of the playing field. Apple has not invented 1 piece of technology in a mobile device. Nothing. Yet it wasn't to use everyone else tech while at the same time push them out of the market. I cant believe you don't see anything wrong there..

At the end of the day, i guess we will always differ. I make no bones that i detest apple as a company and that they are nothing but thieving robbing fools.

Dunno but reading this it seems the judge thinks HTC have a case..

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...977=obinsource

Guess we will have to wait and see!

Saint Steve Jobs started this Holy War against Android vowing to destroy it with every last penny the company had.

The USA's patent system need overhauling. I would like to see peace declared on all sides. But Tim Cook has done nothing to start the peace process he just seems happy to continue with his predecessors Jihad.

Bloody hell, they'll be suing God next:

"The use of the apple as a recurring motif for the fall of man and knowledge is clearly stolen from Steve Jobs"

Whilst its unlikely the new iPhone will be banned, I sincerely hope it is. Not because I want to see it off the shelves, but because it will teach Apple that they are just as open to getting burned as those they're trying to sue out of existence. Hopefully, it would be enough for them to call an end to all this nonsense and have everyone sort out a reasonable cross-licensing deal between them.

It's hard to believe they're going as far as suing small German coffee shops because they have an apple in their logo. After all, this is the same company that got sued multiple times for stealing their company name from Apple Records. Apple Computers' defence was that they weren't in the same market, so they weren't infringing. However, it now seems that doesn't count - or Aple are about to get into the coffee game big time!

It reminds me of all those old stories where you'd hear of McDonalds suing some little Scottish coffee shop because it had the same name. I can't stand these big companies that literally bully small businesses.

He must be spinning in his grave. If only they knew it would happen, they could have put magnets in his pockets and use them to make electricity And that's another patent right there

They can exist fine on 3g this is about 4g

If Apple had invented electricity they would sue the world including the Sun and the Wind