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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."
Apple isn't behaving well but they still have a long way to go to reach Microsoft levels of evil.
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.
An emergency claim of patent infringement, surely calling it an "emergency" is taking the piss. Was someone's life or health in danger or just someone's bottom line.
There should be some punishment for misusing patent law and the ITC/courts like this. Perhaps the court should ban the plaintiffs competing product for 6-12 months when an allegation is found to be false...
But if that happened, Apple would just find another legal loophole to exploit I suppose.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
"The patent covers a system to detect telephone numbers in e-mails so, when the number on the screen is tapped, they can be stored in directories or called without dialing."
I can understand legitimate complaints about patent infringement. I can even almost understand some of the complaints Apple puts forth against Android devices. While I don't necessarily feel they should be winning the cases, I feel that they're at least operating within the system. My issue is with situations like this, where they're pressing for bans when the situation isn't even decided yet. They're just pressing to hurt the competitors as much as possible without actually having to prove foul play.
Smuggling phones!
It will be like Prohibition, revisited. Rich folks will have the best phones at parties, like they used to have the best booze during Prohibition.
Will Elliot Ness triumph over Al Capone this time . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Am I the only one that wonders why no one is screaming antitrust? I guess Apple feels safe having the USPO fight their battles. I can see this ending badly for Apple down the road if they keep it up.
Hating to state the obvious, OSX is not based on Linux but on *BSD. They just happen to inherit the POSIX interface, which makes it simpler to have native Linux applications running on OSX than it would be otherwise.
Ah! Totally different then. As you were...
OSX is not based on Linux, however they both more-or-less started from Unix.
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...
"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...
Christ, what a mess!
That's for sure.
"Ahh! I see you're in that indeterminate Schrodinger state where - oh, uh
I'll only spend money on a smartphone made by a company that does not litigate frivolously.
(Not holding my breath on this one.)
Well, with Jimmy Darmody gone, maybe Nucky Thompson will make it!
In all fairness, developing a system that actually encourages technological progress requires a deep understanding of economics, psychology, game theory, and a couple of other disciplines, and the Statute of Monopolies predated a remotely modern version of any of those. Even then, the statute changed monopolies from "whatever the king felt like granting monopolies on" to just novel inventions. It was quite a progressive change for the time. The problem is that we've largely regressed in that matter and not realized that they should have kept pecking away at monopolies until they were completely gone.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Given the recent "1 million Android devices activated daily" statistic, I assume they're using the bathroom-related definition of "emergency"; that is to say, "we're crapping ourselves".
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?
the US government had dozens and dozens of things they could have sued Microsoft for doing, which you mentioned, but what did they actually choose as charges?
"Browser bundling". Not only can you not explain this to the ordinary person on the street ( or on a jury ) , it is actually kind of offensive to people with some experience in the technology industry. Honestly, why in the @#$ should they be banned from putting a browser on their machine - does that mean Ubuntu cant, or Apple cant?
it was a royal foul up by the Clinton administration especially Janet Reno.
now claim that Apple's patents are invalid or that they do not infringe them.
In Samsung's appeal against Apple's injunction against the Galaxy tablet: "Apple failed to provide sufficient evidence that the Galaxy Nexus caused "irreparable harm" in the form of market share lost to Samsung. The filing also suggests that such market share losses "must be substantial" and directly caused by the infringing feature, rather than the product as a whole."
So Samsung does not argue that the patents are invalid or that it violated them but rather that it doesn't hurt Apple too much.
"HTC believes that Apple's claims exceed the bounds of the original complaint. The statement by the ITC is seemingly not a denial of Apple for lack of propriety, but more a lack of information."
So HTC believes that Apple is overreaching when it says that HTC has not re-engineered it's products enough to avoid Apple's patent. It does not deny the fact that it violated Apple's patent.
It appears that Apple has a winning case when it comes to patents when they are no longer being challenged.
So then why do you get bash if you open up a terminal on OSX?
What does BASH have to do with the kernel?
The best product should win by virtue of being the best product, not because it's killed all the other competition. I don't use a Samsung phone because it stole all sorts of technology from Apple, I use a Samsung phone because I like it better than the Apple alternatives. I wasn't all, "Oooh this has Apple's curved corners and it can detect a phone number in my email!" No, I went "Oooh, this has a slide out keyboard and it's on sale for $300!"
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Because you have your terminal configured to start the bash? You can also configer a different shell, like tcsh or csh or ksh ... so what is your point?
On a Sun (Oracle) Solaris box the default shell is also bash or ksh, that has nothing to do with linux ort what ever.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
...until Apple tries to sue Google over its upcoming tablets / smartphones. Google will hand Apple it's own ass on a plate, and blast them back to 1995.
The day Google begins to aggressively 'defend' Android will be a very glorious day...
I can't wait!
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.
To be fair, it's also designed to encourage people to reveal how they accomplished what they've been doing since the Enlightenment started, so that the rest of society can benefit from their research. Of course, given how much research it takes to "invent" rounded corners, slide to unlock, and phone number regexes, I think Apple's patents have probably collectively saved civilization maybe an hour.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I still consider it a lick of linux. The 2 pieces of software can often be found in the same ISO image.
If they're soooo concerned about stopping their competition's phones, maybe they should just buy the entire shipment of phones lol.
If you think bash comes from linux, you're in error. It's rather a bit the other way round[*]. Bash was written for the GNU project and first released in 1989. Linux was first released in 1991. As it happens, I'm not strident about calling it GNU/linux, but Stallman DOES have a point in doing so, and GNU really did make linux feasible to develop. There is an awful lot of work represented in the userland of linux that Linus did NOT have to do to get his OS running.
~~~~~
[*] Considering bash plus dozens to hundreds of other GNU userland programs. Bash itself was not an absolute prerequisite to linux, but the GNU projects as a whole were, in practical terms. Linus stood on the shoulders of giants, as well as being a giant himself.
And exactly how is the rest of society supposed to benefit from that research if they, like, you know, are PREVENTED FROM USING IT ???
So It's not what they included, it's why?
While in my day-to-day life I often use the "the intent in more important than the actions" argument as I am a forgiving person, but in business I don't think it really applies mostly because it is a subjective assessment - not a reliable way to enforce rules. Using this rationale is like saying that MS are not allowed to bundle any software with the OS just in case it harms a competitor to that software - that's a bit unfair.
I do see your point, and it's a fair one - but in business the cookies crumble like that sometimes. I don't think it was unfair for MS to use their advantage (monopoly) over Netscape - that's a bit like banning the guy with long arms from competing in darts.
Never happened. True story.
Every single iTunes upgrade prompts me to restart, but I never do and have noticed no ill effects. I wonder if that's boilerplate verbiage that they include just in case.
I liked Apple because you could by a full-blown commercially supported Unix operating system. Before anyone screams desktop linux, Apple has 3d drivers that actually work, they've had MSFT office for years, and generally it was accepted as a "real" computing platform.
When Apple famously claimed that "1984 won't be like '1984'", everyone assumed it was because they didn't want an Orwellian situation in the computer industry.
As it turns out, Apple is totally into the idea. They just hadn't perfected the technology back then.
-Lod
A lot of people like to bring up Windows Mobile as prior art but Windows Mobile only dates back to 2000:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile
Then others try to bring up Palm but Palm OS only dates back to 1996:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_OS
But everyone seems to have forgotten about the Newton which debuted in 1993:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_(platform)
The Newton went on to be the inspiration for the iOS platform many year later.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
change a comma and patent it further... :/
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
https://www.google.com/search?q=iPhone+spontaneously+combusts
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
iOS has always been one of the shittier mobile OSes. Even if it was the most technically advanced at launch, the artificial limitations hobbled it so that it could never hope to be as good as the more open mobile OSes that used to exist. Now it's still just as closed (and thus shitty) on top of being technically inferior to Android (which is still too closed for my taste).
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
So can Java.
DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
The patent and copyright system was meant to encourage innovation by allowing those who developed the idea to make some of their money back by having exclusive access to the idea for a limited period of time. It was never meant to grant perpetual monopolies or stifle innovation in the way it currently does in the United States (and other countries).
DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
It was supposed to be for a limited period of time, but thanks to Disney and other lobby groups, these things keep getting longer and longer.
DNA -- National Dyslexic Association
When your in technology you have to keep moving forward, you cant release a product, then stand around with your thumb up your ass while everyone surpasses you, and THEN start crying. Yes I know they have improved the iPhone, and if you look at a model 1 vs a model 4 there is a lot of things changed, but compared to the 3 there's not that much difference.
That's what people remember, not how far have you come, but how far have you gone since the last one, and people are noticing that there's not that much distance. iPhone is slowing down, and instead of getting geared up and working hard, Apple is choosing to pursue these silly little patent lawsuits on shit they should have never been awarded in the first god damned place. Just like a child who had its toy taken away they are acing like an ass and pissing everyone off in the area at the same time.
You can consider it whatever you want; doesn't change the fact that bash is not Linux. By that logic any piece of standard software would be a "lick of Linux".
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
And exactly how is the rest of society supposed to benefit from that research if they, like, you know, are PREVENTED FROM USING IT ???
By licensing it. It's fun to poo-poo patents and all, but at the end of the day, it costs a lot more to create than it does to copy. This has to be addressed if you're going to push the idea of abolishing patents, especially in this e-world we live in now.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Who makes chrome but refuses to give it the ability to reflow text. Presumably because kids at google have perfect vision.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Because patents are only temporary? Remember also that patents were instituted back before the rapid development of stuff like the tech industry became so commonplace; a twenty-year head start was more reasonable then, whereas now new developments are often obsoleted before their patent terms expire.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
That's copyright. Patent terms have held (more or less) steady, although the time taken to develop these "inventions" has generally dropped off significantly.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face