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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."
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.
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.
I guess its a good time to be a lawyer.
Imitate
Innovate
Litigate
Disintegrate
... 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 !
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.
I think I have figured out why MSFT and Apple are suddenly friends and its a lot of little things coming together but above all its a common enemy...Google.
Now that MSFT has bowed out of the media player market by killing Zune there is really only one place that MSFT and Apple really are in competition is the X86 market and looking at Apple under Cook with the way updates to the line have been getting anemic and they are running off pros by dumbing down products like FCP I honestly believe cook is gonna take Apple out of that market. Makes sense as Intel killed the Nvidia chipsets and its getting harder and harder to keep the line trendy with Intel whipping out new chips, its just not a big money maker compared to the i line of products. So I think they will keep a few bottom of the line units for another year or two and then bow out, declaring the iPad the new mac.
Then you have to look at what Apple and MSFT have had as of late, with Apple taking the high margin sales and MSFT taking the low? I don't think apple has a problem with that, they have never wanted low margin sales. They know even with MSFT getting into tablets and smart phones what they will see, business oriented with major fuckups in UI design but that hardware is cheaper so the low rent market will go for it, again not a market Apple really cares about.
But then here comes Google...ya know, even if I don't personally use or care for a product I WILL give credit where credit is due and Google threw a BIG monkey wrench right into the nice game Apple and MSFT were playing. You see Apple sells hardware, MSFT software, and Google's model is neither and it pisses with both companies niches. Google gives away Android and does all the work so MSFT can't sell cheap copies to OEMs like they usually do, and since Google is making its money on Google ads and services it doesn't care what kind of hardware you put it on so you are seeing both expensive and cheap android units, and of course those more high end units are cutting into Apple turf. If Apple plays the same game with Google they'll have to update their lines more often as all these new Android pads get faster and faster chips and bigger and bigger graphics, which with Tegra out there that is a worry, because Nvidia is cooking up some pretty powerful chips.
So frankly I suspect we'll be seeing more and more of this as we go along. Apple doesn't care about MSFT and the low end market, MSFT doesn't really have any products being marketed to the same demographic Apple owns so no real reason to hate each other and BOTH companies would like to "fucking kill Google" with Jobs going so far as to say he'd spend his entire fortune to nuke Android.
But if I were Google it wouldn't be the lawsuits that would be worrying me, it'd be the one place where MSFT and Apple can royally fuck Google, and that is content. One serious blind spot Google has always had has been content, after all they thought they could just snatch content like they snatch web pages in the search engine with GoogleTV and quickly got the banhammer on their device. This is one area where both Apple and MSFT have also been particularly strong, with MSFT making deals for content for Windows internet TV and X360 and Apple of course with iTunes.
So while the lawsuits are more drawn out if I was Google I'd be busting my hump signing deals with content providers left and right, because who would want an Android device if it only has YouTube? The fact we haven't seen Google doing this is worrisome, and Google would do well to remember the rule about sleeping giants. If MSFT and Apple are playing nice that is a hell of a lot of capital between them for signing content and if everyone is distracted by the lawsuits that could give Apple and MSFT just the time they need to split ARM like they did x86.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
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 !
I saw a woodcutting that summed it up nicely. It showed two farmers fighting over a cow while a lawyer was milking it.
I found it, or at least a similar picture:
http://facstaff.elon.edu/efink/images/lawsuit.jpg
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.
Once-innovative companies that have passed their peak always seem to go down in a blaze of shrill patent lawsuit "glory". They deserve to be called patent trolls when they switch business models like that.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.