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Apple Has Spent More Than $100 Million Suing Android Manufacturers
Diggester writes with an excerpt from an article at Gizmocrazed about the absurd amount of money Apple has spent suing HTC et al: "The never-ending war on Android has cost Apple more than $100 million, according to latest estimates. While a huge chunk of that money was spent (read wasted) in claims against HTC. So far, 84 claims have been filed against different Android manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, etc.) for patent infringements, out of which only 10 were proved to have been infringed and only one ruling has gone in Apple's favor."
Question is - how much money did they won from that one ruling in favor ?
Any compensation awarded to Apple in these cases is purely icing, and a molecule in the bucket compared to Apple's capital. This is about protecting their brand, trademarks and image. And as we all know, Apple will go to any lengths to do so.
Microsoft's mobile business essentially IS extorting money from Android manufacturers to indemnify themselves against litigation, I'm not sure why Apple wouldn't try their hand at it too.
Also, going to court is always a risk. There is some chance that no matter how ridiculous its claims, Apple might win on some minor points, or even some major ones.
Consider this: Apple's Dutch Galaxy Tab ban shot down by The Hague
From that article:
Yes folks. Money spent to argue over dotted lines and thickness of the device.
Yes. Thickness of the device. A reasonable design goal to anyone.
That's like arguing infringement of a sports car design based on "goes fast".
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Question is - how much money did they won from that one ruling in favor ?
As the case wasn't tried in South Korea, I think the award was probably in dollars.
"I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong" - Steve Jobs
$100 million down, $39.9 billion to go.
This is about Steve Jobs throwing a tantrum because Google had the audacity to try and compete with the iphone with Android.
The real question is: how much money did all the lawsuits (winning or not) cost the competitors?
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
It seems everyone's forgotten how different things were before the iPhone. All this "obvious" shit wasn't obvious at all back then, and it was only a few years ago.
Well, you got LG Prada (came out before iPhone, had virtual touch buttons), Samsung F700 (slightly after iPhone), and then you of course got IBM Simon... Launched in 1993, had touch screen controls, a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. And it had less physical buttons than the iPhone.
So... I'd say that all that obvious shit was pretty obvious back then, but the hardware was lacking a bit. Being the first in a race doesn't mean you invented running :)
It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
Groklaw I believe is where I read a brief summary. The judge in at least one of those cases said that while there was infringement there was no possible way that damages were caused because of the nature of the patent. I like smart Judges personally.
In several other cases (again see if you can find them on Groklaw) the MFR was given time to work around the patent. Again no damages were awarded.
Which is which case? No idea off the top of my head. I read way to much to know sources this long after reading them.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Not really. It's about obstructing its competitors from bringing their phones to market. Apple figured out a year ago that its competitors have better phones than it does.
So far, 84 claims have been filed against different Android manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, etc.) for patent infringements, out of which only 10 were proved to have been infringed and only one ruling has gone in Apple's favor."
WTH? What happened in the 9 cases where the patent was proven to be infringed but the ruling didn't go in Apple's favour?
They made minor changes to the software as per court orders.
What you have to remember is that Apple are so afraid of Android that they are suing over anything and everything no matter how petty.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Before the iPhone was first unveiled(January 2007) there was a phone (LG Prada) that actually did look a lot like an iPhone
LG Electronics has claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied the Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”[8]
Note: While the LG Prada was not released until after the iPhone, the design and concept were released before we saw any of this from Apple.
i spent five minutes thinking and all i got was this crappy sig
So you're saying that Apple should be able to trademark the rounded rectangle? That's stupid. Touchscreen devices, quite obviously, should try to maximize the size of the screen relative to the device. And anything that people must handle regularly shouldn't have sharp corners. The rounded rectangle is simply a case of form following function.
Also, at least one of those photos has been manipulated to make the Samsung phone look more like the iPhone. The Galaxy S and iPhone 3G have different dimensions, including different aspect ratios, yet they appear identical in the photo comparing them. Whoops! Newsflash... if you have to lie to prove your point, you don't have one.