Apple Loses In Courts Again; Infringes On FaceTime Patents

[jpeyton]

Ordered To Pay $368 Million

That's a good chunk of their Samsung winnings, gone in a flash.

When will Apple (and others) concede that the current environment of technology patent litigation is a zero sum game?

[postmortemIA]

Originally Posted by jpeyton

Ordered To Pay $368 Million

That's a good chunk of their Samsung winnings, gone in a flash.

When will Apple (and others) concede that the current environment of technology patent litigation is a zero sum game?

It might be zero sum when it comes to money they make out of these. It is not zero sum game for these for which litigation is only source of income (patent trolls).

However, big players like Apple (stupidly) believe that they can disrupt competition's product supply and development of future products by these lawsuits.

In other words, if money was no problem, and competition is making good products; how do you legally stop them? With lawyers. This is what Microsoft used to do.

[ponyo]

That's nice chunk of change. I was wondering why VHC stock price jumped 28% today.

[Zaap]

Originally Posted by postmortemIA

In other words, if money was no problem, and competition is making good products; how do you legally stop them? With lawyers. This is what Microsoft used to do.

So true. Apple has become everything and worse that they used to rally against Microsoft and IBM for. They now ARE the Big Brother on a screen that needs someone to run in and toss a hammer through.

Saddest of all is the fans who've gone along with it just to cheerlead for their team.

[HeXen]

Originally Posted by postmortemIA

In other words, if money was no problem, and competition is making good products; how do you legally stop them? With lawyers. This is what Microsoft used to do.

Nintendo was also like that at one time, back in the 8 bit days. I remember when they sued Sega because they repackaged and shrank their console to make it cheaper. Lost obviously.

But that's business, i'm just a consumer of products.

[sjwaste]

Originally Posted by Zaap

So true. Apple has become everything and worse that they used to rally against Microsoft and IBM for. They now ARE the Big Brother on a screen that needs someone to run in and toss a hammer through.

Saddest of all is the fans who've gone along with it just to cheerlead for their team.

Yup. I'll never understand brand loyalty with technology products, especially personal and consumer electronics. It just bolsters my belief that the average consumer is a complete idiot.

And I like/own some Apple products too. I just only buy them when they're the best tool for the job, otherwise I go buy whatever else is.

[cmdrdredd]

Without building upon what has already been thought of or done before and refining it and building upon that base to make a better product, there would never be any new products.

[Oyeve]

I wonder who will bail them out if they continue this BS and fail.

[BladeVenom]

"We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas." -Steve Jobs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

[Phokus]

Good, i hope apple continues getting their asses kicked, then maybe they'll jump on the bandwagon for IP reform.

[Kenmitch]

Originally Posted by Oyeve

I wonder who will bail them out if they continue this BS and fail.

I wouldn't worry about it. Many will defend Apple and buy their products no matter what.

The funny thing is the devoted seem to be ignoring this thread....Go figure

[Mopetar]

Originally Posted by Zaap

So true. Apple has become everything and worse that they used to rally against Microsoft and IBM for. They now ARE the Big Brother on a screen that needs someone to run in and toss a hammer through.

Reminds me of the line from one of the newer Batman movies: "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Not to suggest that they're evil, but if you were to take where the company was at when it was founded and what it wanted to do, and where they are now, they'd be two different things entirely. Victim of their own success, just like pretty much every other company that's grown that large.

Originally Posted by Oyeve

I wonder who will bail them out if they continue this BS and fail.

Bail who out? Apple?

I think they'll be fine on their own.

[BladeVenom]

Originally Posted by Mopetar

I think they'll be fine on their own.

Yea, if Apple ever decides the current laws are more of a burden than benefit, they'll just pay to have them changed. Which I hope they do. Patents laws seem more of a hindrance to technology now than a benefit.

[WelshBloke]

Guys, patent trolling is not good no matter who gets burned.

We need less stupid lawsuits not more.

[Kenmitch]

Originally Posted by WelshBloke

Guys, patent trolling is not good no matter who gets burned.

We need less stupid lawsuits not more.

Patent trolling isn't a good thing but what's a company to do? You either pay for the right to use or find a work around that doesn't violate the patent(s). It's vague patents that should have never been awarded that mess things up!

Looking at the company in questions website it does look like they are willing to negotiate!

I'm pretty sure Apple knew that they were infringing on the patents from the getgo. They figured they'd take there chances in court and lost....End of sympathy towards Apple! I'm pretty sure Apple has stolen more than it's paid for in the end.

[Mopetar]

Originally Posted by BladeVenom

Yea, if Apple ever decides the current laws are more of a burden than benefit, they'll just pay to have them changed. Which I hope they do. Patents laws seem more of a hindrance to technology now than a benefit.

If it were this easy, some other company would have already done it.

Originally Posted by Kenmitch

I'm pretty sure Apple knew that they were infringing on the patents from the get go.

I'll have to look, but I recall reading in some article related to the case that Apple's engineers didn't even bother thinking about patents or what might be out there. They probably could have designed around existing patents, but I don't think they bothered to even see what those existing patents were so they ended up getting burned.

Most software patents are pretty easy to get around once you pick through the details.

[Zaap]

Originally Posted by Kenmitch

Patent trolling isn't a good thing but what's a company to do? You either pay for the right to use or find a work around that doesn't violate the patent(s). It's vague patents that should have never been awarded that mess things up!

The second you see the words: "A U.S. Court... Eastern District of Texas" you know it's Patent Troll central. The same company just filed a new lawsuit against Apple today.

http://virnetx.com/virnetx-files-new...against-apple/

"In its complaint, VirnetX seeks both damages and injunctive relief. The accused products include the iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5th Generation, iPad 4th Generation, iPad mini, and the latest Macintosh computers."


But of course you won't find many people these days having much sympathy for Apple getting stung by a version of the same game they've been playing themselves.

You ask, what's a company to do? How about work to clean up the system, rather than abuse it further? Apple's lameass idea so far has been to abuse the hell of of it, with the idea that if they're the biggest shark in the filthy pool, they can eat all the other sharks. But they don't seem to have considered eventually being eaten themselves by 10,000 smaller piranhas.

So a better question is, what's a company to do when they've fostered a broken patent system that eventually backfires on them and stifles their own ability to create new products along with everyone else? What's any company to do when you can't make virtually anything that doesn't suck or that will not work in some crucial way, because 10,000 patent trolls are waiting to sue the hell out of you if you use the overly-broad concepts and ideas that do work?

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by Zaap

... What's any company to do when you can't make virtually anything that doesn't suck or that will not work in some crucial way, because 10,000 patent trolls are waiting to sue the hell out of you if you use the overly-broad concepts and ideas that do work?

Well said that man.

[OBLAMA2009]

facetime is a stolen product. i just wish apple would start inventing their own products

[Skurge]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/7/36...ounded-corners

LOL