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| Google asks ITC to ban every Mac, iPad, and most iPhones |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-09-19 21:40:45 |
| "The International Trade Commission voted yesterday to investigate Apple for patent infringement allegations launched by the Google-owned Motorola Mobility. As expected, Motorola is asking for import bans on just about every iOS device, including iPhones, iPods, and iPads. What might be surprising is that Motorola is also asking for a ban on every type of Mac OS X computer, claiming Apple's iMessage technology infringes a Motorola patent." Let's hope all those products get banned. And that all Motorola phones get banned. Let's hope everything gets banned from the US. And yes, I changed Motorola into Google for the headline. |
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| Let's hope everything gets banned from the US |
| By l3v1 on 2012-09-19 22:13:04 |
|
> Let's hope everything gets banned from the US Well, let's just divert all container ships to Europe, we'll gladly take them, for a bit cheaper price of course :) Everyone should just stop selling stuff in countries where the relevant industry-related patent law environment is unstable and/or unreliable. Or where you can know for sure you'll end up in court one day. |
 - Score: 8 |
| So now the other shoe drops... |
| By galvanash on 2012-09-20 03:03:45 |
|
I wish there was some way to avoid all this... I know, abolish software patents! Seriously though - this is just going to go careening out of control now. Pretty soon Apple and Google are going to step back and shed some tears over all the money, time, and energy they are mutually wasting on this silliness. This is starting to look like a giant stimulus package for patent lawyers. In the end only the lawyers win. ps. For my fellow American geeks - I know it is about 800th on the list of import stuff, but find out the stance of your congressional pick when it comes to software patents. The only way to fix this is from the top. It's the laws fault - not Apple's or Google's. |
| - Score: 2 |
| Every company should just fire 90% of their lawyers |
| By darknexus on 2012-09-20 03:19:45 |
| Seriously, these idiots are just wasting time. iPhones will not get banned, neither will Macs. We know this. Samsung devices will not be banned either. We know this as well. I think these companies, every single one of them, should investigate just how much their legal department is taking from their bottom line and do some serious budget cuts. It's become one giant penis-waving contest between these companies, all for nothing. I'd say the law needs to be changed as well but, given how many politicians are lawyers and how many others have their fingers in the cash flow from this shit, we're not going to see that happen any time soon. Apple, back the fuck off. Google, shut the fuck up. It reminds me of a lot of spoiled little kids saying "well, I had that first! Gimme gimme gimme!" |
| - Score: 4 |
| Bravo! |
| By Lobotomik on 2012-09-20 05:56:06 |
|
It was never Google's way of doing things to use software patents for agression. Even for defense, they did not file thousands of patents for every fart from any of their engineers. Apple DOES patent every fart in Cupertino, even those that smell just like long-lingering ones from who-knows-who, a thousand years ago. And then it uses the legal system predatorily to incinerate the competition. Google was forced by Apple and Microsoft into this battle, and they had to spend many millions of dollars in ammo, buying Motorola and other sources of patents here and there, well after Android was in the market and well after the world was seeded by their own servers and networks, for which they have developed considerably sophisticated software and hardware, from which no known patent battles have emerged. I don't think this is a particular patent war that Google intends to win: it looks to me like they intend to poison the well and stop this nonsense altogether. If the judges do indeed ban import of any iDevice into the US of A, many people will roar bloody murder, and Apple must take note. Apple are so cynical, though, and the belief they invented everything themselves is so inground in their corporate culture, they will present this as a strike by carpetbaggers against their creativity, unlike the aggressions from their side, which are oh, so legitimate. But it is time they accept that they are carpetbaggers themselves, that 99.9% of what they do is based on ideas learned and copied from elsewhere, with 0.1% of a (very nice) sauce poured on. This 0.1% might be exquisite enough to have the world beating at their doors to buy their products, but it must not give them the right to block others from making their own sauce, even if they take inspiration from Apple's ideas. After all, the others are also pumping out ideas that Apple is snorting greedily when nobody looks. I hope Google prevails, and then Samsung with their appeal, and Apple loses face and is shown to be the serial imitator/improver every other company is, and the whole legal patent system implodes pushed by its considerable negative energy. |
| - Score: 8 |
| patent system |
| By Janvl on 2012-09-20 06:26:51 |
| Just wondering, had this patent system existed about 30 or 40 years ago then there would not be any apple or microsoft today. |
| - Score: 7 |
| RE: Bravo! |
| By darknexus on 2012-09-20 06:47:26 |
|
> I don't think this is a particular patent war that Google intends to win: it looks to me like they intend to poison the well and stop this nonsense altogether. One can hope, but the more cynical side of me says that's probably not the case. Even if it were, tactics of poisoning the well often have a nasty habit of coming back to poison the poisoners along with the rest. I do hope the entire system implodes but, should that happen, we need to be ready to make sure that whatever replaces it isn't even worse. A vacuum is filled quite quickly when power is broken, and often that which steps in ends up making what came before look like a land of fairies and unicorns by comparison. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: patent system |
| By Alfman on 2012-09-20 07:07:08 |
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Janyl, This patent system did exist back then, but the lawyers hadn't gotten involved in computers yet. So, corporations were more focused on building things rather than litigating. "...there would not be any apple or microsoft today." If you didn't watch this recently posted video, you should view it now. He brings up this exact point. http://vimeo.com/47322970 Jump to 6:55 - 7:20 "Back in the 80s there were no software patents, and it was xerox who pioneered the graphical user interface. Now what if they patented popup menus, scrollbars, the desktop with icons that look like folders and sheets of paper? Would a young and inexperienced apple have survived the legal assault of a much larger and more mature company like xerox?" The entire presentation hits the nail on the head. |
| - Score: 5 |
| RE[2]: patent system |
| By MOS6510 on 2012-09-20 07:52:49 |
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Apple didn't copy from Xerox, they were shown the goods, which they liked, and then Xerox and Apple cooperated on the Macintosh GUI. A number of Xerox people worked at Apple, a number even joining Apple. I agree if Xerox had patented all their GUI stuff and refused to license them it would have made things more difficult for GUI builders, but as it went Apple didn't copy/steal from Xerox: they worked together. PS I recently opened up a Mac Classic II, which was broken, and noticed a number of chips labeled Samsung (and Apple). How things can change. But the good news is that the Classic works again. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: patent system |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-09-20 08:05:52 |
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> I agree if Xerox had patented all their GUI stuff and refused to license them it would have made things more difficult for GUI builders, but as it went Apple didn't copy/steal from Xerox: they worked together. Xerox did sue them a few years later. So it wasn't all peachy. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[4]: patent system |
| By MOS6510 on 2012-09-20 08:07:43 |
| Showbiz mariages never are. |
| - Score: 2 |
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