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Apple Loses Bid For Emergency Ban On HTC Phone Imports
New submitter tukang writes "The US International Trade Commission has rejected an emergency request by Apple to detain some HTC phones (including the One X and EVO 4G) at the border while the agency investigates Apple's claims of patent infringement. In May, HTC's phone shipment was held up at the border and was only allowed to pass after U.S. Customs and Border Protection received assurances that HTC worked around Apple patents, a claim which Apple disputes."
The big players in mobile all have their warchest of patents in place. Now they are stepping up the game; apparently it has become necessary to also have a warchest of ongoing lawsuits. Better sue the competition and have 5 cases running against them, then we have something to trade when they decide to sue us in turn.
But they know this: all of this serves quite nicely to keep new players out of the market. If you can get an injunction against a certain product because it has rounded corners, then there's nothing you can't block... unless the competition similarly threatens to block your own products from the market.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
There are quite a few Apple dollars bouncing around Washington DC, even more since they became best of friends with the RIAA and MPAA. I wouldn't hold my breath for the government to save us from Apple any time soon.
Great Intellect...
"Patents were never meant to be used to try to kill competition."
No, they were meant to prevent any form of competition until the patent expired. Somehow that is supposed to help us as a society by encouraging people to do... exactly what they had been doing since the Enlightenment started. Not sure whoever came up with that thought it through fully, but boy, have they been trying to justify it since!
Great Intellect...
..but ms+apple have covered their bases this time, can't accuse them of antitrust. MS,Apple and Nokia have thrown their dealings together, but the arrangements on licensing - and who sues who - are closed from the public(even if they're all publicly owned corporations, funny that).
you see, this way MS doesn't sue their licensees for their other phones(that would be bordering on a no-no).
this way Apple doesn't sue MS licensed products.
this way Nokia+MS don't sue Apple. so effectively they're acting as one party, "by purely consequence".
It's not a trust, it's just "licensing arrangements"(and backroom deals and handshakes, which again are not made public).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I mean, MS included a BROWSER in their OS. ...and they didn't even give you a way to uninstall it! Now THAT is pure evil.
Absolutely! Good thing I can uninstall Safari from my Mac, easy as -- wait, what's this?
”Safari.app” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.
The article does mention that you can rm -rf it from the command line, but cautions that this "could result in abnormal system behavior or improper functionality".
Try building your crap in the US. It takes a hell of a lot more effort (and actual evidence presented in a real live US court as opposed to a shadowy meeting with a "committee" of one guy) to have a domestically produced product impounded, than to convince the largely unregulated and capricious CBP to impound something ill-defined.
Domestic fireworks: Okay. Foreign candies with toys inside: Banned.
Domestic hardcore humiliation porn: Okay. Foreign Playboys: Banned.
Domestic overpriced mislabeled antidepressants marketed at kids: Okay. Foreign 100% legit heart meds for 1/10th the price: Banned.
I don't consider myself a bit "HuAH, Made in America" fan, but hey, nice to have someone employed capable of buying your crappy phones, eh?
Yeah, well, Microsoft lets you do things with your computer that are UNSAFE, like install software NOT APPROVED by them.
I've got mod points, but I'll rather point out that on my mac I often compile and install software that has never been approved by anyone. Mac OS X is unix, so ./configure; make works rather often. I'm not a "fanboi" but I'm not too impressed by claims not supported by facts, either.
Your moronic analogy is well...moronic.
The correct analogy is Ford and Chevy blocking you from using aftermarket compatible parts that were not purchased at the dealer. They don't do that. Apple on the other hand.......
Another analogy would be ford and chevy forcing you to only purchase gas from the dealer.
No one is trying to install incompatible android apps on apple platform as your analogy suggests. What they are trying to do is install aftermarket compatible apps on the apple platform that does not come from the Apple dealer. get it?