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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."
...not only that, the business of companies taking each other to court over patents is becoming the norm and as such, increasingly stale (as news)...in my opinion.
I can't keep track of all these lawsuits anymore. I just keep picturing an image of the globe with thousands of missile tracks as the world's tech companies try to obliterate each other with patents.
Not Apple? I see this as good evidence that Nokia is completely controlled by Microsoft.
I don't know what has gone on behind the scenes to get Microsoft and Apple to luv each other, but it seems like there is no rational reason for Nokia to leave Apple out of the fun except that they have been commanded to do so by Microsoft.
So Apple & Microsoft, what is your plan for the post-Android world you are trying to create?
Microsoft cannot sue Android makers directly, because they all already paying Microsoft for the bogo patents. But since MS essentially owns Nokia, Microsoft gets to double dip.
if you can't compete, litigate!
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Imitate
Innovate
Litigate
Disintegrate
In total, 45 patents are included in one or more of the actions, according to Nokia. They are related to a variety of software and hardware features, including power management, multitasking, navigation, data encryption and the retrieval of email attachments on mobile phones
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
SUE EVERYONE!
Can't compete? Litigate!
If you can't innovate, litigate.
This is the results of Apple's attempt to win in the courts rather than the marketplace.
When Steve Jobs said he would "go nuclear" to stop other companies from making tablet computers, he failed to understand every other corporation out there is also armed.
That's why sometimes it's so difficult for me to believe Steve Jobs had anything more than a hipster's level understanding of Buddhism. This stuff is beginner's level Karma knowledge- you reap what you sow.
As of this moment, we are cruising at an altitude of $3.50 as you can see by the NYSE price.
I have been instructed by the parent carrier to initiate a controlled flight into terrain so that it can pick up the pieces and glue them onto itself. You, the investors, are expendable.
Please enjoy your brief flight on MicroNokia Airways.
You are free to move about the cabin.
--
BMO
Microsoft is having a hissy fit and getting their bitch to sue because Google's bitch slapped them a good one in Germany. They're all trash.
Although the following interactive graph is kinda outdated, it still illustrate the mess ---
http://bl.ocks.org/1153292
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
It was only a week or two ago when it was announced that Nokia are no longer the number one seller of handsets on earth. It's going down at an accelerating rate and not up.
Nokia is very much alive (notice the bit above where I mentioned it was the number one seller of handsets) despite a lot of internal effort to kill it. The core problem is currently Elop, there are other problems but he's putting in no effort to fix them and busy getting rid of anyone that can. Even then it will take a long time to kill Nokia even if it's a deliberate effort.
Nokia is an old time innnovator and a big player in the industry. No way can they be called a patent troll. Conversely HTC, viewsonic have a bussiness model of fast followers and copying, respectively. Viewsonic is not an innovator just a cheapenator. they rarely even make their own stuff. HTC simply adds fashion to existing tech. I can't really say much about rimm. They definitely innovated in the field but they are desperately trying to catch up hardware wise. So it depends what the patents are.
I have little doubt they have a case since they had a case against apple on basic ideas in how to conduct cell phone operations. Apple settled or at least cross licencenced.
Finally this is obviously not an attempt to black mail these companies. Their market share is miniscule. Instead, Nokia needs cash flow so they are going after places they know they can win but ignored when they had bigger fish to fry.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
>God, these lame armchair analyst zealots get on my nerves.
We all know what's happening.
Elop is sabotaging the company, he and the board will get golden parachutes, and get hired by Microsoft, and the remains of the company will be acquired by Microsoft.
It's been plain ever since Microsoft "bought without buying" Nokia by having Elop installed as Cuckoo CEO.
Deal with it.
Go be butthurt somewhere else.
--
BMO
They only needed to pay off a few key quislings, the net worth of the company is irrelevant.
You think they can do anything about it? Protectionism is not looked on favourably by the EU or the WTO.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
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.
My time on the internet taught me to interpret "google this" as "I have nothing to back up my claims, but I still want to sound authoritative".
What actually happened is, the board decided to oust Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and install Stephen Elop, because things were going to hell fast. If he is Microsoft's trojan horse as the conspiracy theorists here like to assert, the board should be blamed for not seeing this. But something tells me that they have better grip on the company's prospects than a legion of Slashdot neckbeards.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
Yes this is MS having a hissy along with Nokia because they backed a loooooooooooooooossser now they are both doing an apple and having a childs hissy fit someone give them a good slap on the back of the legs that will calm them down please ..
The comparison to Apple isn't entirely fair. Apple didn't back a loser, they backed a winner but are having a child's hissy fit anyway because other people backed winners too and that's not fair and they should be the only ones to get anything and they're going to scream and scream until they get their way. In comparison Microsoft and Nokia sulking over losingis relatively mature.
I think it's more that Apple created a market (just like they did for GUI-based computers in the 80s) and don't want history to repeat itself. Whether they have a right to protect that market by litigation is a different matter, but I think their motives are about keeping a degree of control in a market where the 'me too' companies are doing quite well.
Assuming you're a believer in capitalism and free markets, you should be thrilled to encourage and protect "cheapenators" the world over. God bless them. They're the reason the system works. The more the merrier!
What we have these days, unfortunately, are a bunch of lazy communists who think that their business should get special protections instead of having to compete, which is just so hard for the poor widdle baby CEOs. Their mommy told them they were entitled to fat profit margins on their work ("innovating is so expensive!"), and if some upstart can out-compete them on price, it's just... not... fair!!!!!
So they spend their time coming up with ways to change the rules of the free market so as to make it less free. Never mind that they themselves only got where they are today by using the ideas of others. Now they've got theirs, and they want to make sure no one else can ever take it.
These are the guys whining about how the "cheapenators" stole their precious ideas, and we all need to band together to make sure that precious "intellectual property" can't be "stolen" from the monopoly- I mean, inventor. Instead of competing, they spend their time suing and lobbying, trying to gradually expand the scope of copyright, patents (i.e. creating "software patents"), and other protectionist schemes.
It is anti-capitalist. It's a plot by people who want to change the US to have an institutionalized wealthy upper class, whose status is protected by laws and handed down family lines through generations, like they have in Asia. And they know it's so repugnant they have to do it very gradually. For that matter, deep down they may even know it's economically counterproductive. So there's an element of denial about it thrown in as well. So right now it's just policy ideas (like strengthening "IP") that just so happen to have this effect.
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