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Apple Wins Injunction Banning Import of HTC Devices
Newly accepted submitter squish18 writes "All Things D reports that Apple has won an injunction banning the import of some HTC phones starting in April 2012. The ruling by the ITC stems from two claims of the '647 patent concerning software used to enter personal data in mobile devices. It is interesting to note that the ITC has also reversed previous rulings regarding regarding infringement of two other '647 claims, as well as patent '263 claims."
It looks like Apple's victory is relatively minor. They lost claims on all patents except for one, and HTC/Google can work on implementing similar functionality in a non-infringing way.
Apple is becoming an evil empire!
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Just another reason why our patent system needs to be changed. And another reason I don't know who to vote for these days. It seems that all politicians (or most) support the current patent system or don't care to do anything about it. I mean, how can you patent touching a phone number on a screen? That isn't even close to an invention. Absurdity.
From TFA:
So the non-frivolous claim on which Apple actually prevailed was essentially a regex to find things that look like phone numbers in unstructured text documents, which then link to a dialer app?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
http://www.itc337update.com/tags/337ta710/
It looks like Apple's victory is relatively minor. They lost claims on all patents except for one, and HTC/Google can work on implementing similar functionality in a non-infringing way.
It seems like this is exactly what Apple wants, other companies coming up with their own solutions. This should also be want Slashdot wants. Isn't competition what drives innovation? Where's the innovation if everyone just does what everyone else is doing?
These are basically irrelevant stories which only last for a few weeks at most and serve only to annoy everyone concerned. It Isn't benefiting consumers, its not beneficial to either company and only wastes court time. No one wins from this tit for tat patent challenges
There is no -1 disagree
Can we elect people who will terminate software patents, please?
The flurry of international tablet lawsuits seems much more rigorous than I remember for any past technology. Was it always this bad?
Smart phones didn't sue each other this badly. Nor did DVD manufacturers. AMD & Intel went at it hard during the 80's & early 90's. Sony & Betamax sorta duked it out. But the tablet wars seem to be nutso.
At least the economy for lawyers is booming...
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
HTC gave Android Central the following statement (updated 6:20 EST): We are gratified that the Commission affirmed the judge’s initial determination on the ‘721 and ‘983 patents, and reversed its decision on the ‘263 patent and partially on the ‘647 patent. We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.
I would love to know what fraction of total expenditure for some of these companies is spent on legal tangles. All these cost are of course passed on to the consumer at the end of the day, so the longer this ridiculous farce of a patent system is allowed to continue the longer it will be that we continue to pay inflated costs.
MP3?
I agree that the patent system is broken because patents are granted for frivolous claims such as XOR cursors.
But to the extent that inventions really are novel and unobvious, and the claims non frivolous, continuously reinventing the wheel is really what we want. if we never reinvented wheels, we would still be rolling things around on the trunks of fallen trees.
Further I do not agree that software should be exempt from patents for the reason that the patent office gave, that software is an inherently mathematical concept. Anyone who does not agree that software is just as mechanical as an automobile engine has never written any code.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
or does Apple have that patented too.
That's not reinventing the wheel, thats improving the wheel... Something you couldn't do if the wheel was patented because your improved version would still infringe on the original.
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No matter what they do to try to force me to own an Apple product I never will. I was actually cheering Jobs on in the book until they got to the iPod and then I was cheering him to the grave.
I would hardly say that turning phone numbers into hyperlinks qualifies as novel and unobvoius.
A real problem is that fiendishly expensive lawsuits are required to overturn patents. we would be much better off if just anyone could point out prior art that would get the patent office to overturn patents that aren't really novelmor unobvious.
the patent examiner who decides the unobvious part really should be an expert in the given technology. had some examiner ever studied the most elementary graphics, they never would have granted a patent for the XOR cursor.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
uspto.gov requries the use of Apple Quicktime to view images. Whats wrong with gif, jpg, png...
This kind of thing has been done forever in distributed systems.
Analyze the data and trigger an action based on the content within the context of processing a workflow.
RIM did this a long time before apple. Windows always asked how to open a file w/ out an associated application.
This isn't a new problem.
I'm available for part time work if google needs someone to implement a message based ESB-lite on Android.
In a vague sense carrier IQ was violating parts of these patents w/o UI elements.
Not having this 'feature' may be a win for HTC. I find it really annoying when I touch a date and have my phone set itself up to dial '2011'. It also doesn't work, because when I try to use this feature, it only recognizes part of the number : usually just the '1800' of '1300' part, which is completely useless.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
If you filed a patent 15 years ago and there have been infringements of your patent for the last 10 or so years without you even blinking an eye about, it should be declared invalid.
I recall my pocket pc doing something like this. I bought it in 2002.
Call them an evil empire all you want, I'm not doing to argue. That's the point you are trying to make. But don't call them an evil monopoly. They aren't a monopoly by any definition. I'm tired of people using that word and not understanding what it properly means.
It's like calling Sarah Palin a stupid man.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
So apple has a patent for just entering personal data in a mobile device? WTF is next they are ruled to own the patent on the idea of a smart phone?
Sorry, but anyone who things that software is just as mechanical as an automobile engine has never rebuilt an engine.
Spoken as someone with a math degree who earns a living coding....
I would hardly say that turning phone numbers into hyperlinks qualifies as novel and unobvoius.
In 1996, it kind of was. The issue is that the duration of a patent is too long and what was once novel has become obvious.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
this is actually a good thing.
Once Apple has pushed everybody else of the smartphone market, it has been proven that patents are just another extortion mechanism for large companies.
Also, hasn't anybody noticed that Windows phones aren't targeted? Time and again google seems to be the target.
BT too, since they can't get net neutrality removed from the picture, they abuse patents for their extortion schemes.
WHEN DOES THE WORLD REALIZE THAT PATENTS ARE JUST ANOTHER EXTORTION SCHEME FOR LARGE COMPANIES? They don't help the small man at all, as maintaining patents is really expensive and proving that a patent has been violated is even more expensive... and money is something small companies don't have.
What Apple patented in '647 was standard functionality on other devices before. Right now, Apple can merrily rip off other companies and they can get away with it because there is no money in overturning their patents. We need to change the patent system so that if companies succeed in overturning a bad patent like '647, companies like Apple are on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in damages, plus an obligation to replay all related licensing fees.
I've been putting off buying an HTC merge. Maybe its time now.
The business climate in the US is hardly Apple's responsibility, and I'm not going to blame them for playing by the same rules as every other fucking company out there.
Now, if you want to go trade in your iPod for a used Zune, feel free. But as for me, I'll stick to good hardware and good software and lawsuits over shit hardware, shit software and lawsuits.
Did you actually read the article you linked to?
Apple has accused HTC of patent infringement through its smartphones, and filed several patent lawsuits against the Taiwan-based company in Delaware in the last two years.
So Apple sued HTC and two years later HTC sued Apple, and HTC are the bad guy?
IBM stands alone in the world of patents because IBM holds the most patents. This fact places IBM in a unique position: IBM can leverage the power of cross-licensing more than any other patent holder. This is a formidable power. For IBM the trouble of licensing patents is mostly hypothetical. In "Think" magazine, #5, 1990, IBM estimated the value of this cost. As the link above says:
IBM doesn't pursue patent lawsuits because IBM can pressure virtually any patent holder into cross-licensing. IBM isn't failing to sue because they're choosing to take a defensive position (whether reluctantly or not). IBM's power here puts the lie to the 'lone inventor' myth the patent system sometime engenders just as it puts the lie to any "protection" a small software developer would gain should they discover IBM believes they're competing with IBM.
A transcript of Richard Stallman's talk on this problem (including mention of the above article) is online (1, 2), as are audio and video recordings of him giving this talk. I highly suggest reading and/or watching the entire talk because the talk is highly informative, and he is clear to separate his work on free software from the trouble with software patents. The danger of software patents "relates to the question of whether the programs are free or not, the dangers of the same for all software developers".
Digital Citizen
So you really are defending these frivolous patent lawsuits from HTC and your justification is "they are countersuing Apple, that makes HTC the good guys"? Astounding.
The Slashdot anti-patent brigade must have a special exemption for when patents are enforced against Apple. Hypocrites.
Isn't it funny how the "anti-hipster" crowd depends on Apple to exist before they can show how much they supposedly aren't ironic hipsters? Wouldn't that simply make them hipsters themselves?
I think the overall comments reflect a dislike for software patents, be they Apple, HTC or ,* .
The ".* sucks" comments will probably be thrown at any company bold enough to sucker
punch someone that actually is doing a good job.
Like BT
dreaded scurrilous bit-twiddler from Oklahoma
Nonsense. Even when it was pointed out that HTC is doing the exact same thing, the only response was somebody defending HTC.
You don't need to look hard at Slashdot to figure out the bias.
HTC ONLY sued Apple in retaliation, Apple were the first to go after every Android manufacturer claiming Android copied their 'inventions'. Apple have never denied that and are completely unapologetic about the fact that they started the war. HTC are NOT doing the same thing. If they were doing the same thing as Apple, HTC would be launching lawsuits against other Android manufacturers like Samsung based on the same patents they are trying to use defensively against Apple, and even against other companies like Nokia, RIM etc.
Right, so in your world it's acceptable for HTC to launch frivolous patent lawsuits because it's retaliation against Apple.
That's exactly what I surmised. That's also why I said you and your ilk are hypocrites. If you were consistent you'd be heaping as much scorn on HTC as you heap on Apple.
Apple is suing for preliminary injunctions in several countries asking for a ban on the sale of *all* HTC devices. Even if such an injunction lasts a few months in a major market like the U.S., it will simply destroy the company. Even a massive company like Apple sitting on a huge pile of cash would be severely affected by such an injunction, a small company like HTC with comparatively limited resources, and in the fast moving world of mobile technology, will be decimated.
I know I am invoking Godwin's law, but I presume you are unhappy that people do not "heap as much scorn" on the Polish Resistance Movement as they do on Hitler because the former chose to fight back with whatever they could lay their hands on?
If HTC start suing other companies using the same patents they are using against Apple, then you would have a point. But they're not. It is clearly self defence.
Apple get roasted on patent issues on slashdot because anyone with even basic programming knowledge (i.e. almost everyone on slashdot) knows how ridiculous Apple's lawsuits are, and how destructive such patents are for the industry.
So your argument is that for reasons of "self-defence" it's OK for HTC to use frivolous patent lawsuits and injunction requests to try and destroy another company.
So if Apple were to assert that HTC attacked first by blatantly ripping off Apple's inventions, and that Apple was merely "retaliating" against HTC by asserting their legal property rights, you would defend Apple?
Or does "self-defence" only extend to lawsuits, not to property rights? Or, as I said earlier, are you just giving HTC a free ride because you're an Apple-hating Slashbot.
It's not for you to decide whether a patent is trivial or ridiculous. From reading other comments, most Slashbots don't even know the details of the patent, let alone the subtleties of patent law.
Apple's just barely defending itself!
Those lawsuits only serve to spur real innovation!
War is peace!
Freedom is slavery! ... And here I thought RDF should be dissipating little by little after its source died.
it's OK for HTC to use frivolous patent lawsuits and injunction requests to try and destroy another company.
Who said anything about destroy Apple? Some dude called Steve Jobs did say something about destroying Android..
HTC didn't start the war and they are still willing to negotiate and settle the legal issues, hell they even paid off Microsoft's extortion racket, I bet they would even pay Apple for their ridiculous patents.
So if Apple were to assert that HTC attacked first by blatantly ripping off Apple's inventions, and that Apple was merely "retaliating" against HTC by asserting their legal property rights, you would defend Apple?
No I wouldn't, because Apple's 'inventions' are mostly trivial and/or have tonnes of prior art e.g. slide to unlock, multi touch
It's not for you to decide whether a patent is trivial or ridiculous. From reading other comments, most Slashbots don't even know the details of the patent, let alone the subtleties of patent law.
That's the biggest load of crap I ever read. When the words of patent lawyers and Florian Muller count for everything and those of John Carmack and Linus Torvalds count for nothing, we are truly f##ked. And by we I mean the west, and especially the U.S. because China and the rest of Asia will go on without being encumbered by such stupidity. I have read and tried to understand more than enough of these patents and the words of patent lawyers to know that what you're spreading is pure FUD. You're insulting the intelligence of people on slashdot by trying to tell them that a software patent on a simple algorithm or process is beyond their comprehension because it is clouded in pages of incomprehensible legalese and entirely superfluous details (e.g. describing the inner working of an operating system and the mobile device which have no bearing on the funcitonality described)--that stuff is to fool the morons in the patent office (and the people who approve these patents are morons, I don't care if they are overworked underpaid morons, they're morons) and the courts. It doesn't fool us.
Really? Because Apple claims that HTC did start the war. HTC stole Apple's property, Apple responded by using legal injunctions to stop the theft, and you're claiming Apple is the bad guy?
Bias showing much?
The Slashbots are claiming Skype and 2001-era Nokia phones as "prior art". If that's the level of understanding you consider to be "intelligent", then god help us all.
Of course, you've already compared me to a Nazi sympathiser, claimed FUD, and used potty language like "crap", so I honestly doubt you know what you're talking about either.
That you can't see the obvious - HTC is a rip off merchant who just steals from other companies - is your blind spot here. I'm not an Apple fanboy. I think software patents suck. I prefer Linux and GNU. But I'm not so blind as to defend HTC when clearly HTC is in the wrong. HTC stole technology from Apple, Apple took them to court, and Apple won. Good for Apple.
Unfortunately you are so blinded by your hatred of Apple that you would blame them no matter what the facts.
You know, any rational human would recognise that when the glaringly obvious was pointed out to them, that HTC aren't the bad guys, because they only launched a counter-suit 2 years later, as a defensive measure against Apple's aggression in the courts, that person would recognise they were wrong.
You however, are still pursuing the same line, that somehow HTC are the bad guys.
This is why you are a fanboy, you lack any ability to perform basic logical reasoning in the face of your pet brand. It must suck to be as blindingly ignorant as a religious zealot, are you really incapable in your mind of recognising why you are wrong? is that thought process so impossible for you?
I can't grasp how hard such a life of ignorance must be to live. Oh well, your problem I suppose.
Actually Apple lost, they wanted to ban the import of HTC devices in the U.S., they got a verdict over one software patent that is easily worked around and will not be able to use the patent claims that were rejected against anyone else.
Apple Wins Injunction Banning Import of HTC Devices _In the US_
meh it wasn't. I think you're forgetting how 1996 was. you could select email addresses back then in some sw and send email. even 1993 you could find prior art.
when was lynx made? because what it actually does if there's an email tag is analyze the input and make it clickable and give you a choice to send email, no? the patent is so broadly worded that it's rather irrelevant if there's the tags around it or not.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Let me guess...you're running Windows as OS?
It's just ridiculous that a patent like that is allowed. It might as well have been invented by a child. The US really is the laughing-stock of the world.
That is all.
The idea is obvious since it's exactly what you or I would do as we read through a text document. Oh, there's a phone number, let me store/dial/copy it. This "invention" just automates everything and adds the typical "on a computer" or "on the internet" clause. It's not a novel combination of prior actions.
The actual code, algorithms, modules, etc. used to implement this on a computer, phone, PDA, etc. would (and should) be protected by copyright. There is no "invention" to patent, though.
The biggest winner in the game of corrupt, unjust law is government. No matter who wins or loses, the business of government always wins. Imagine if the law was simple, efficient, based on common sense and human morality -- what's in that for government? A loss of hundreds of billions of dollars per year, that's what.
these are supposedly the patents, although they could be dismissed as entirely being bogus:
A data transmission system having a real-time data engine for processing isochronous streams of data includes an interface device that provides a physical and logical connection of a computer to any one or more of a variety of different types of data networks. Data received at this device is presented to a serial driver, which disassembles different streams of data for presentation to appropriate data managers. A device handler associated with the interface device sets up data flow paths, and also presents data and commands from the data managers to a real-time data processing engine. Flexibility to handle any type of data, such as voice, facsimile, video and the like, that is transmitted over any type of communication network with any type of real-time engine is made possible by abstracting the functions of each of the elements of the system from one another. This abstraction is provided through suitable interfaces that isolate the transmission medium, the data manager and the real-time engine from one another.
A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data. The system provides an analyzer server, an application program interface, a user interface and an action processor. The analyzer server receives from an application running concurrently data having recognizable structures, uses a pattern analysis unit, such as a parser or fast string search function, to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. The application program interface communicates with the application running concurrently, and transmits relevant information to the user interface. Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected structures, and upon selection of a detected structure, present the linked candidate actions. Upon selection of an action, the action processor performs the action on the detected structure.
"They made me do it." Oldest excuse in the book.
Though I'm sure /. will come up with an older one.
I8-D
Naner naner naner! I'm performing an action on a stucture. What? A web page is a computer generated structure and I'm performing an action on that structure. What completely ignorant fucktard allowed this patent through?!?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Isn't that what they would want, and the whole point of an IP fight? Or are you one of those conspiracy theorists that imagines Apple being evil at all costs and doing this just to prevent competition?
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
Coming from someone who ignores reality in order to paint Apple as the poor victim in this situation... You need to look at your own pimply-face in the mirror. If I were to walk up to you and start pounding in your zit-covered face, would you try to punch me back and defend yourself? If so, by your own logic, you're doing exactly what I did to you.
Normally I'd hate on Apple for this, but when people start feeling the full brunt of the telecoms' limited data plans and ever-increasing feature lockdown of their phones, it's not going to matter whether an embedded phone number is one tap or two taps away.
--- When I grow up, I want to be a legislator of scientific laws.
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