News - Apple wins legal case against HTC... or does it?

[HEXUS]

HTC calls ruling a "win"?

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[Ferral]

Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry and others highlighted mobile numbers in text messages before Apple started doing it on their devices. Literally sent a number from someone, it would be highlighted in blue, move the cursor onto it (usually by just scrolling down the message) and click it then you had the option to add to contacts or call.

How Apple are getting away with this is beyond me, you would think they were the very first phone manufacturer ever enforcing origional patents from years before the iPhone was even a thought.

Apple are REALLY starting to become a nuisance in the technology industry, yeah they are trying to be market leaders which I understand, who doesnt. Trouble is they are going about it in such a way that is bad for the consumer unless you are part of Cult of Mac where Apple cant do anything wrong regardless.

Apple REALLY need knocking down a peg or two and putting in their place, only way this will happen is if there is some sort of coalition between technology manufacturers and software developers. They need to get together and get this sorted for the sake of the consumer.

[MaddAussie]

Agree totally with Ferral

[crossy]

Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry and others highlighted mobile numbers in text messages before Apple started doing it on their devices. Literally sent a number from someone, it would be highlighted in blue, move the cursor onto it (usually by just scrolling down the message) and click it then you had the option to add to contacts or call.

Like you I'm sure I remember Nokia doing something similar - actually if memory serves me rightly my old Nokia 7110 had this ability - although in that case it underlined (b/w screen) the text that could be "added to contacts".

Problem I've got is that IF this really did exist as "prior art" then why the heck didn't HTC pull it up as evidence that the patent in question was the usual USPTO p.o.s. ?

Apple REALLY need knocking down a peg or two and putting in their place, only way this will happen is if there is some sort of coalition between technology manufacturers and software developers. They need to get together and get this sorted for the sake of the consumer.

So agree, motto seems to be "litigation instead of innovation" at Apple HQ these days. And again, if, for example, the Android and Windows phone folks got together for a mutual "see what you've got that infringes my patents and we'll do a deal" sit-down, then we'd have Apple complaining to the FTC that there was an illegal cartel being setup.

Personally speaking I'd like some of the current anti-Apple law suits to succeed - they (Apple) are in dire need of some "hoist by our own petard" type lessons. I've yet to see a single patent that they're using that's anything more than trivial and/or obvious.

[Steve A]

Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry and others highlighted mobile numbers in text messages before Apple started doing it on their devices. Literally sent a number from someone, it would be highlighted in blue, move the cursor onto it (usually by just scrolling down the message) and click it then you had the option to add to contacts or call.

How Apple are getting away with this is beyond me, you would think they were the very first phone manufacturer ever enforcing origional patents from years before the iPhone was even a thought.

Apple are REALLY starting to become a nuisance in the technology industry, yeah they are trying to be market leaders which I understand, who doesnt. Trouble is they are going about it in such a way that is bad for the consumer unless you are part of Cult of Mac where Apple cant do anything wrong regardless.

Apple REALLY need knocking down a peg or two and putting in their place, only way this will happen is if there is some sort of coalition between technology manufacturers and software developers. They need to get together and get this sorted for the sake of the consumer.

Apple REALLY need to get a life ...

Apple are REALLY starting to bore me now .........

Infact

ZZZzzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZ

Wake me up when the iPhone 12s is out (probably by the summer)

[Biscuit]

i think this is a perfect example of apple being taken down a peg or two. Along with that EU ruling that Apple and Samsung both have to sort their poo out, feels like we might finally going back to the days when apple tried to sue Microsoft for 'look and feel' and got batted back. You just cant do it!

[Hicks12]

So basically only 1 patent out of 10 was confirmed... Why dont the courts just sort it out and say, Right Apple you have filed 199,000,000 Patents in 2 years yet only 2 of them have passed so can you stop waiting our FJSEIJFEFUI TIME.


It is a win for HTC and im glad HTC have looked at it like that, the fact such a tiny patent (even if i believe everyones done it before...) passed means its easy to fix and the whole "Apple wonz!!!!" will last for approximately 5 minutes . I just hope HTC decide to fire back with some more interesting patents as im sure the same as nokia that they did all this tech way back, maybe they can get MS to help them from the old days of WM 6!.


It really is peeing me off though seeing this, its good to be competitive but its absolutely terrible to be constricting the market and forcing everyone to do something that the market wont like, for instance every touchscreen apparently looks like an iphone yet its more the fact they look like the LG prada but regardless its a generic form factor, its the optimal factor and Apple didnt come up with it so you cant really sue people for coming to the conclusion that there is no real room for improvement.

Atleast there is one significant patent left in the courts, Motorola 3g looks like it could cripple Apple and i hope it passes and that Google decides to either ban the whole of Apples shipments for good or takes the massive royalty and puts down the rules that Apple cant do X Y Z in terms of patent whoring or something .

[GaryRW]

I had an idea this morning of a anti-alcohol pill/spray. Just go out for xmas lunch or parties, drink as much as you want at the end, pop a pill and 15 minutes later hey - you can drive. Can I file a patent and hope that someone else actually works out how to make the thing?

The impression I get is that Apple, and pretty much every other large company, are filing patents for anything and everything they can think of (in terms as vague as possible) all looooong before they have a working product using it. Then, years later, they have a look over what they came up with years earlier to see whether anyone else has done something vaguely in line with what they came up with.

I understood the reasoning behind the patent system was to protect the time and effort needed to bring a worthwhile product to market, without then immediately having lots of competitors stealing your idea. But we seem to have moved on, and I don't accept the premise that Apple wouldn't spend time implementing this (fairly obvious) feature even if they knew others would be able to copy them afterwards.

With things like software UI, I just can't see that patents should apply - Most of this stuff is evolutionary in nature after all. Even if they did, I would say that the tech is moving so fast that any patent for things like that should be massively time limited - a years or 2 (5 years absolute tops imo) should be more than enough to give e.g. Apple a competitive advantage by being the only ones implementing a specific UI development or software feature.

[crossy]

At least there is one significant patent left in the courts, Motorola 3g looks like it could cripple Apple and i hope it passes and that Google decides to either ban the whole of Apples shipments for good or takes the massive royalty and puts down the rules that Apple cant do X Y Z in terms of patent whoring or something .

Oooh, now there's a nice thought - iPhone/iPads being banned - would have thought the prospect of that would really pucker some sphincters in Cupertino!

Speaking as someone who owns three Android devices (phone, tablet and printer) I'd be happier if Google traded the threat of the Motorola patents for a "don't sue Android" pledge from Apple. Let's be honest - if the "iWhatever" products are just so gol' darn' superior as the fans would have us believe, then the big A has no need to sue the "lesser" companies - the market will decide.

Said it before, and I'll repeat myself. There's one bigger difference between Apple and Microsoft's approach - Microsoft basically say "you're violating our patents, here's how much it costs to license them and what compensation we're looking for" whereas Apple's appears to be "we've got a patent on that, stop doing it now and pay compensation". Much as I've slagged off Microsoft in the past, at least their approach appears more practical and customer-friendly.

[kopite]

I just read this over at The inquirer http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ent-apps-calls

WTF!?!?!?!?

Surely the ITC are taking the piss now letting apple patent things that have been in the market for years. Im sure my old t610 allowed me to use other apps whilst on a call??!!?

[Hicks12]

Agreed Crossy, it would be great to just put a stop to it (kinda what my post was meant to end at ). And yeah MS are actually using patents in a way i agree with, if someones violating it then just get a royalty and let them use it, its competition friendly as much as patents can be and everyones kind of a winner.

MS is sensible and are looking at the bigger picture, what happens when people begin to hate MS (more than normal ) then how will they survive, well they will survive via the other platforms taking over with royalties. Apple will be screwed as soon as the Istuff stops being a FAD .

edit: Wow kopite... wtf indeed! I knew ITC were biased to American companies (Apple 100% over anything else it seems) but this is just to far... im sorry but i believe WM 6.1 and even earlier supported all this? I know for a fact my HD2 did on 6.5 and that was in 09, apple didnt do "multitasking" until 2010 atleast with IOS 4.0, multitasking being a vague word for apple .

Ugh why do we have such a corrupt and idiotic Patent system, why cant America just PEE OFF for once. The EU is terrible but atleast it wouldnt have gone that far or id have hoped it wouldnt.

[Scribe]

I just read this over at The inquirer http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ent-apps-calls

WTF!?!?!?!?

Surely the ITC are taking the piss now letting apple patent things that have been in the market for years. Im sure my old t610 allowed me to use other apps whilst on a call??!!?

Hopefully it'll be one of the 90% that fail in the next case.

I think regarding the highlighting of information, it'll be a case of how it's accomplished and the inner detail of the patent that will have allowed it to stand... still though.

[Agent]

I just read this over at The inquirer http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ent-apps-calls

WTF!?!?!?!?

Surely the ITC are taking the piss now letting apple patent things that have been in the market for years. Im sure my old t610 allowed me to use other apps whilst on a call??!!?

My Sony J5 (yes, not SE!) allowed it.

Just a waste of every ones time.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Big American company granted patents easily in the US. Not really rocket science TBH!

[rabbid]

american company but most of their production workers arent in US and like most large corporations most of their taxes wont be collected by US either...

the only winners here are the lawyers!

[Darth Sidious]

don't know why everyones blaming apple here, apple has been the victim of patent trolling for years