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Spanish Firm Wins Tablet Case Against Apple
pmontra writes "A Spanish company has won a legal case against Apple and will be able to sell an Android tablet that Apple had claimed infringes on the iPad patent. It is now seeking damages from Apple for a temporary seizure of its products by Spanish customs. Furthermore they are pursuing an antitrust complaint against Apple, alleging abusive anticompetitive behavior."
Excellent!.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
... that at least 1 judge pulled his/her head out of their ass long enough to see what Apple is doing.
IT Admins Group: Where you decide the content
We can only hope a few more judgements like these get the whole industry to settle down and allow a little more leeway in advancing tablet design.
If lots of smaller companies like this start fighting back now that they see they can win, the cost of legal action all over the globe will hopefully make so little financial sense Apple will stop suing others, and with them desisting the other companies can back away too.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The third article has an update stating that Apple didn't litigate this case, but MAY have been behind the original complaint. Surely we need something a bit more substantial than this before we break out the standard pro/anti-Apple rhetoric?
Why not call it the NPK Pad and sell it to farmers?
Also, since most people won't click on the links, you need to see this entry that's now at the top of link #3:
[UPDATE on November 3, 2011] I have meanwhile published a follow-up post that shows and translates the court order dismissing the case and explains that apparently Apple did not actually litigate this case -- its involvement appears to have been limited to an indictment. [/UPDATE]
#DeleteChrome
Google and Samsung saw and deemed "attaboy!".
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Apple's attempt to own the code that other developers write has failed in this case. They will continue their mission though. They are using software-patents to take ownership of other people's code. It a horrible horrible development in the software industry. Filing patents on applications and gestures just so they can claim ownership over code that they did not write. This egregious behavior on the part of Apple is really showing their true colors. Apple followed by Microsoft and Oracle are the most anti-competitive companies in the software industry and people who are aware of this egregious behavior on the part of Apple and still go out and purchase their products are simply willfully supporting this kind of abuse and litigious practice in the software marketplace and are willfully helping Apple to destroy the software marketplace by removing consumer choice with these despicable practices.
I take it you didn't see the 60 minutes interview with Walter Isaacson. Apple doesn't care about the money. They have $50 billion. In cash. This has absolutely nothing to do with money.
To some extent, everyone cares about money - but also simply about success. If it stops working, why continue?
There's another reason though why we might see Apple let up to some extent - with Steve gone, Tim Cook seems like a guy who would be less passionate about suing other companies.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=468916
what is really anti-competitive? Apples legal actions, or the fact that many of these patents are based on software patents which are based on total BS.
They weren't expecting the Spanish Inquisition!
The company is Valencian.
Sobreseimiento (as in the original report) != dismissal
Just nitpicking, though. I don't think there is a case.
I disagree with those that are criticizing the article. I found it very educational, I had no idea the entire iPad was covered by a single patent.
>> "there should be stiff penalties for frivolous lawsuits"
> There are, if you can prove that its frivolous and/or using the court systems as an anti-competitive hammer. If the court really decides that youre a nuisance, they can nail you pretty hard.
But it's so costly and difficult to run that particular legal marathon, hardly anybody has ever completed the course. (Really, has anybody _ever_ actually completed it?)
The problem is more fundamental: "The grant of invalid patents is a serious evil insomuch as it tends to the restraint of trade and to the embarrassment of honest traders and inventors..."
That was the Fry Committee in 1901, recognizing that fundamental truth. The same applies, of course, to other forms of IP as well, not only patents. But which policymakers and legislators in power remember that now?
-wb-
The tablets don't make much profit, it's the apps users buy that do. If apple buys these and trashes them, they will never ever enter the market and generate revenue. Let apple pay a substantial fee in damages to the company they caused damages to. That, and a very large fine to the Spanish government for filing frivolous lawsuits and anti-competitive actions.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I am from Spain, so I undertand quite well the meaning of "sobreseimiento" and I am following the case close. There are two types, you can translate them to "suspension" and "dismisal". In this case the judge resolution was final, so it is not just suspended. That is why now "catala nuevas tecnologias" can sue Apple, otherwise it could not be possible.
Also think 1 second (if you can) what the mobile phone / smartphone sector looked like BEFORE the iPhone and AFTER the iPhone.
Let's see, before the iPhone it looked like the LG Prada and after the iPhone it looked like the LG Prada, but selling about three times as much and getting a hell of a lot more publicity for it?
I admit that Apple's ability to copy what other companies have done before them, polish it up and market it in a highly successful way is truly amazing. But being the most popular doesn't give you some kind of magical patent rights, despite what a lot of courts seem to think these days.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Oh yeah, an E70 really looks and works like an iPhone. It's more like a Blackberry, although much cooler.
I guess nobody expected that.
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
In business, EVERYTHING has to do with money.
In the realm of REALLY big companies, that is entirely untrue. They make terrible choices all the time that cost them a ton of money.
And that is because at that level, you aren't going to kill the company with a choice or two that costs money. So the leaders of the company act for other reasons, sometimes vision or sometimes personal (though really the two are the same thing).
Look at Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc. They led companies that made TONS of choices that seemed insane money-wise.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think that awarding triple damages in this case would be more appropriate than just paying for lost sales.
Someone needs to explore a tablet that is round, with a round screen, and does everything in polar coordinates. That ought to halt IP litigation...
Agreed. After reading the biography, I can see that Steve Jobs wasn't worried that these divices would cost him money. He was upset because he felt they were just cheap knock-offs of his own products.
I hate hearing about how Apple doesn't innovate because "there were touch screen phones before the iPhone". Yes, their were, but they all sucked. They were harder to use than keypad phone. Then the iPhone comes out and it's not long before Google releases Android. How could anyone believe that Android is not just a wholesale rip-off of iOS?! It's just a shitty copy of a software product that Apple made first, and made better. If I was Steve Jobs, I'd be pissed about it too.
And Samsung has obviously been designing it's products to look like the iPhone and the iPad. Why do they do that? They just want to ride Apple's coattails to success, rather than do the work of developing a unique product for themselves. Thank god they've finally gotten the message and are now making phones that actually don't look like knock-off iPhones.
Or pay the units sold by Apple in Spain as a penalty, plus court costs.
After all, if Apple sold 10,000 units and the held units were only 1,000, then Apple would still have made a profit on the deal.
Every Apple iPad sold should be considered the potential sale lost to this Spanish company.
Hopefully this will prevent Apple from trying to win in the courts, instead of in the marketplace.
Apple has been winning in the marketplace with the iPad since its introduction. All of the biggest names have had serious problems competing in the marketplace, including the abortion of HP's effort and Blackberry pulling back for a re-do.
There is no indication that Apple intends to stop working to keep up the wins in the marketplace.