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Apple Sues HTC For 20 Patent Violations In Phones
eldavojohn writes "Taiwanese HTC is being sued by Apple for 20 patents regarding the many phones HTC manufactures. Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, 'We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.' Apple has similar patent litigation with Nokia and may be trying to scare the rest of the industry into licensing patents similar to the Microsoft-Novell and Microsoft-Amazon deals regarding patents covering Linux functionality."
There are about a dozen companies with patents that helped create it, so they set up RAND to come to a mutually beneficial cross-licensing agreement.
Exactly - and thus the standard they set is supposed to be licensed under the same terms by ANYONE. That includes Apple, you can't demand different terms from them as from anyone.
That's the WHOLE POINT of standards that are based on patents.
I don't think you understand how standards bodies work, at all - or even what the point of standards are. Standards are something that ANYONE CAN USE. Not just the people that created the standard, or else what is the point?
I'll let you have the last word since Slashdot seems to be having a really bad day understanding RAND and patent law in general - I give up trying to help any of you understand what is really going on.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But that is exactly what slashdot is! A place of massive expressed ignorance!
Why bother
Filed between 1995 and 2005, thinkgs like oo graphics system oo event notification system etc...
Half of the stuff has been documented in the Gang of Four book ca 1992 and has prior art from Xerox Smalltalk etc... way into the 70s!
Sheesh I get more and more the feeling that Steve Jobs has lost his mind since he almost died.
If they sued they should pull off patents with a little bit more substance than toilet paper!
I am pretty sure since HTC is longer in the mobile phone game than Apple ever was they will countersue with something more substantial. Seems to me more like a suing to grab some patents off HTC than anything else.
Technologically...
you start to sue...
Apple has reached an absolutely new low, well it has been there before when they sued left and right companies for technology they themselves copied from Xerox...
Instead of suing they should start to get the iPhone right, how about a decent JavaVM or Flash..