Apple Cries About Samsung and Motorola's Patent "Monopoly"

[BenSkywalker]

In a scene straight out of Bizarro World, Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) lawyers are crying foul about Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (SEO:005930) and recent Google Inc. (GOOG) acquisitions Motorola's allegedly "anticompetitive" use of patents.

I. Apple Claims Android Phone makers are "Abusing" Patent System

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=22586

Had to link this, I found it highly amusing.

 

[alent1234]

yawn, your normal PR crap

i don't know why people get so worked up about it

 

[I Saw OJ]

lol

 

[Genx87]

Oh Apple got first hand knowledge of how the patent system worked last week and now see's the writing on the wall. They are about to be anally probed by the industry for being assholes. This is going to be fun to watch unfold over the next few years.

 

[Oyeve]

Wow, apple should STFU for a while. People are getting real sick of this patent crap.

 

[Glitchny]

Pot meet Kettle

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Wow, apple should STFU for a while. People are getting real sick of this patent crap.

It's just making the news because it's Apple. This patent crap is because of how crappy our patent system is.

 

[s44]

Petard, meet hoisting.

 

[Dulanic]

They dug the hole, now they need to lie in it. Google only got serious about patents /w Android once Apple started suing all of the Android handset makers. You don't force a snake into a corner and then get mad because it tries to bite you.

 

[zoiks]

Hey Apple. How about them apples?

 

[boomhower]

Oh Apple got first hand knowledge of how the patent system worked last week and now see's the writing on the wall. They are about to be anally probed by the industry for being assholes. This is going to be fun to watch unfold over the next few years.

Not really, where do you think the tens of millions of dollar that are going to be spent on lawyers is coming from?

 

[Bateluer]

Wow, apple should STFU for a while. People are getting real sick of this patent crap.

While I'm glad to see Apple get their comeuppance, the fact is that most people don't know squat about the patent wars.

 

[Powermoloch]

reap what you sow

 

[J-Money]

Dear god these businesses are doing business things!

Someone must stop them!

 

[Oyeve]

While I'm glad to see Apple get their comeuppance, the fact is that most people don't know squat about the patent wars.

True, I got real interested in patent wars when atari patented everything the did in the 70s and early 80s, then laid low for years, then attacked every console out there, and won. Ahh, goodtimes.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Dear god these businesses are doing business things!

Someone must stop them!

:thumbsup:

 

[akugami]

Honestly, I don't see the point of whining about the patent system from Apple. It is what it is. But there are no innocents. Each company has done some pretty shitty things.

 

[Pliablemoose]

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/74556883/

 

[_Aurel_]

He is right in the sense that 18 out of 25000 patents doesn't seem like a deal, but there are other things to factor in. Number one, Google will get a huge tax break this year (about 1.7 billion) for buying Motorola, and 700 million for each subsequent year until 2019 (source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/01/businessinsider-another-reason-why-google-bought-motorola-to-lower-its-taxes-2011-9.DTL). Second, Motorola builds most of the boxes for cable companies, and having a hardware manufacture under its arm will undoubtedly give them a huge opportunity to put Android in millions of homes. I also think that having a manufacture to be able to test Android software on is a good thing in the future, as it will allow Google's software engineers to build better and faster implementations of Android with Motorola's hardware.

Lastly, this wasn't talked about that much but needs to be pointed out: Motorola threatened to sue other Android hardware makers for patents, and was rumored to have Microsoft interested in buying them out. The worst thing that could have happened to fracture Android further is to have a major OEM sue other manufacturers, and then subsequently be bought out by a rival software maker and used as a tool for litigation.

 

[jmcb]

This is too funny.

Didnt Apple and some other companies join up and buy the Nortel patents? WTF are they crying about?

 

[Oyeve]

All tech companies are just plain evil.

 

[cheezy321]

All tech companies are just plain evil.

This

 

[runawayprisoner]

All tech companies are just plain evil.

But they are not all equally evil. Some are more evil than the others.

 

[akugami]

I've been looking over the the issue because the Dailytech article is sensationalist to be honest. There is a decided lack of source in their claims except for the one quote so I did a little digging.

Seems Apple is arguing that it is unfair, and likely against the law, for Samsung and Motorola to use FRAND patents in a counterclaim against Apple. You can sue someone for refusing to license FRAND patents if they use it in their products but you can't use it offensively or defensively in other words. Once you commit your patents to FRAND (and Apple does have some FRAND patents) you can't turn around in a patent dispute and use it as a weapon. You can still use patents you own that are not under FRAND to sue or countersue someone. And Apple's lawyers are not complaining about the non-FRAND patents, only the FRAND ones.

This is not an argument for or against the validity of Apple's patents nor am I condoning Apple's behavior. I'm just saying that I don't agree with using FRAND patents in a patent war.

Here's some further reading.