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Via Files Suit Against Apple

Posted by samzenpus on from the more-the-merrier dept.

crookedvulture writes "Add chipmaker Via to the list of companies filing legal suit against Apple. Via owns a number of fundamental technology patents inherited from Centaur, and it's already forced Intel to grant an ongoing x86 license. Via also has a vested interest; CEO Wenchi Chen is married to the head of HTC, which Apple sued for patent infringement last March."

5 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Release the Kraken! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Surely Apple did not think that they were the only ones in the market with a patent portfolio.

    1. Re:Release the Kraken! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Considering they are one of the most frequently sued companies in the tech industry, it's highly unlikely they hadn't noticed others hold patents.

    2. Re:Release the Kraken! by Gaygirlie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Surely Apple did not think that they were the only ones in the market with a patent portfolio.

      That's what I've been wondering about. Apple are suing all kinds of mobile device manufacturers left and right in hopes of being able to bar them from markets and to remain on top themselves. But they MUST have known that once they start suing the other big players they'll start pushing back and not only the ones being sued but also all the others too just to ensure that Apple won't win, otherwise Apple would just come after the rest later on. And well, gee, that's exactly what's happening: companies that haven't yet been sued are taking the initiative and suing first. Offense is the best defense and so on.

      So what's Apple's angle here? They stand to lose quite a lot of money, and if the sh*t really hits the fan their stuff could be barred from the market and a large portion of their patent portfolio could get invalidated. So is there a plan behind this, or was it just simply we've-grown-so-big-we-think-we-can-do-anything - type of brainfart? I personally believe it's more towards the brainfart - situation here and things just got out of hand, but I suppose we'll see how this giant game of chess plays out.

    3. Re:Release the Kraken! by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think Apple expects to permanently ban them from the market. It just wants to keep competitors wrapped up in court cases until Apple can scoop them with its newest offerings. I'm sure it knows full well most of its suits are sheer garbage that ultimately will fail. But ultimately could mean what? 6 to 24 months? Oh my, look at that, the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5 come out in those kinds of Windows, meanwhile the competition has a product to bring to a market but can't because of what amounts of a strategically placed nuisance suit.

      Of course, if Apple suddenly finds its own products being delayed in the same manner, or worse, but actual hard technology patents, then yes, they could seriously fuck themselves over. But that's fine. If everyone eventually ends this evil little war in a compromise, the consumer will win. I just hope all sides lose massive amounts of money in the process. Unfortunately, the lawyers will get rich(er).

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Release the Kraken! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Get outside of Taipei and into "Green" territory, and you might learn that many* Taiwanese consider themselves to be ... wait for it... Taiwanese. They tend to consider the invading Han Chang Kai Shek and Sun Yat Sen (using Wade-Giles, not Hanyu Pinyin) and their followers to be history they would rather not have been involved with.

      * "many" approaches 49% for some definitions of many.

      Word verification is "remorse", how do they pick these words?