Nokia Sues HTC, RIM and Viewsonic
angry tapir writes "Nokia has filed claims in the U.S. and Germany saying that products from HTC, Research In Motion (RIM) and ViewSonic infringe a number of the company's patents. Nokia has filed actions against all three companies in Mannheim's and Munich's respective regional courts. Nokia has also filed complaints against HTC before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the Federal District Court of Delaware and the regional court in Düsseldorf. RIM will also have to dispatch its lawyers to Düsseldorf for a Nokia lawsuit filed there, while ViewSonic's legal team have to defend the company against a suit in Delaware."
I guess its a good time to be a lawyer.
... the business of companies taking each other to court over patents is becoming the norm ...
As I've said in one of my previous comments --- this patent litigation thing is a boon to the legal community, and it has made a lot of lawyers very very rich.
These very very wealthy lawyers will see to it that the broken patent system stays broken, and they will do everything to encourage corporations to sue each others to crisp over patents/copyrights --- and all the while they (the lawyers) are raking in truckloads and truckloads of moolah
Maybe we can learn from an Ancient Chinese legend ---
An egret tried to eat a big clam and that clam clammed up the beak of the egret in return.
As both were fighting each others a fisherman bagged both the egret and the big clam as the result.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I saw a woodcutting that summed it up nicely. It showed two farmers fighting over a cow while a lawyer was milking it.
Hah, I think there's a better airplane analogy: the pilot is trying to control a stalled airplane, while ignorant onlookers are judging his skill by what altitude and the rate of descent the plane has at the moment.
See, just before the wings stalled, the airplane was gaining altitude. People ignorant about flight dynamics may think this means everything was going OK, but the engine thrust was set too low for that angle of attack and the plane was dangerously losing speed. When the stall warning sounded in the cockpit, the captain woke up from his nap and took control from the dumbass co-pilot, but too late: the plane started to plunge uncontrollably. The captain promptly put the stick down (see, he's trying to kill everyone on board!) and increased engine thrust. In the recent minute, the plane has lost another 1000 feet of altitude and still descends; the recovery is uncertain. And it's all captain's fault, because the fall happened while he was in control!
The thing about financial analysts is, they know jack shit about any specific market, especially so in technologically-intensive areas, so all they are left with to make their crystal ball projections are pure financial data. These tell nothing about where things are going, whether the company is gaining or losing mindshare among consumers and developers. In 1997, the financial press spelled doom for Apple and their stock was tumbling below $3.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.