How Steve Jobs Patent-Trolled Bill Gates

theodp writes "Apple, which is currently waging IP war on Android vendors, is no stranger to patent trolling. Citing the Steve Jobs bio, Forbes' Eric Jackson recalls how Steve Jobs used patents to get Bill Gates to make a 1997 investment in Apple. Recalled Jobs: 'Microsoft was walking over Apple's patents. I said [to Gates], "If we kept up our lawsuits, a few years from now we could win a billion-dollar patent suit. You know it, and I know it. But Apple's not going to survive that long if we're at war. I know that. So let's figure out how to settle this right away. All I need is a commitment that Microsoft will keep developing for the Mac and an investment by Microsoft in Apple so it has a stake in our success.' Next thing you know, BillG was lording over Jobs at Macworld Boston, as the pair announced the $150 million investment that breathed new life into then-struggling Apple. So, does Gates deserve any credit for helping create the world's most valuable company?"

Comments

Re:Disagree

[larry bagina]

Andrew Carnegie?

Carnegie died on August 11, 1919, in Lenox, Massachusetts of bronchial pneumonia. He had already given away $350,695,653 (approximately $4.3 billion, adjusted to 2005 figures) of his wealth.[27] At his death, his last $30,000,000 was given to foundations, charities, and to pensioners

John D. Rockefeller?

Rockefeller's fourth main philanthropy, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation, was created in 1918.[80] Through this, he supported work in the social studies; this was later absorbed into the Rockefeller Foundation. In total Rockefeller donated about $550 million.

Re:Disagree

[HappyEngineer]

You're trying to define innovate to mean the same thing as invent. That's not what it means. It means "Make changes in something established, esp. by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.". It's hard to argue that Apple doesn't do this. They find markets where there's room for improvement in the products and then release a product which is better is some way.

Re:Apple practically invented patent trolling

[readandburn]

Xerox got 1,000,000 shares of pre-IPO Apple stock for $100,000 in exchange for a demonstration of their technology.

I wish someone would steal from me like that.

Re:Apple practically invented patent trolling

[larkost]

You are very misinformed in using the word "stole". Apple clearly paid Xerox for everything it got from the tours there (except maybe for the engineers that it hired away):

http://obamapacman.com/2010/03/myth-copyright-theft-apple-stole-gui-from-xerox-parc-alto/

A choice quote (for those too lazy to click over):

Apple obtained permission ahead of the Xerox PARC visit. In addition, Apple provided compensation in exchange for the various Xerox PARC ideas such as the GUI.

Re:Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the parent poster said, do some basic research. This took me 30 seconds to find:

  http://www.badseed.info/GMO-genetically-modified-crop-news/35309_bill-gates-ties-up-with-monsanto.html

Re:Apple practically invented patent trolling

[Tharsman]

An interesting side story to this is that Apple engineers went crazy implementing overlapping windows because they were shown such a feature at Xerox. Xerox engineers were shocked since they never actually implemented the feature and thought it to be impossible to do.

At the end of the day the only thing Apple got out of Xerox were ideas, nothing else. Implementation details were almost all home grown and some of those details were shared with Microsoft. Those were the details Apple sued Microsoft over.