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Google Seeks US Ban On iPhones, iPads, Macs
theodp writes "Following up on an announcement that it would rid itself of 4,000 employees world-wide and renege on a deal with the State of Illinois, Google's Motorola Mobility unit said it has filed a new patent-infringement case against Apple, which seeks a ban on U.S. imports of devices including the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. 'Apple's unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers' innovations,' Motorola Mobility said in an e-mailed statement."
Why not ban the two companies from doing business in the US until they iron out a deal?
here we go again...
when will someone get the balls to hit the destruct button on the broken patent industry. I'm tired of reading about it, yet alone trying to keep abreast of it.
PS haven't RTFA but I am assuming this is another trivial software patent (although with MM there is a chance it is a valid hardware patent)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIrhVo1WA78
Google is good and would never sue anyone. I guess they are just looking for some more FRAND abuse smackdown.
Google will learn this is the worst 12.5b anyone ever spent.
Self defense isn't evil. If someone hits you, you are allowed to hit them back.
If this were to succeed, just imagine the economic impact.
First, the Web 2.0 would collapse. Without Apple devices to participate in all sorts of useless "social media", the entire hipster culture would implode. This means Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, reddit and all of the other big names would be no more. (As a side-effect, there'd also be no further need for Ruby on Rails "developers" and NoSQL "experts" to build these kind of sites.)
If these hipsters aren't wasting time on web sites like those, or on trying to build the "next big startup", then they won't need to be sitting in Starbucks all day. Starbucks and its ilk could very well become the next victims!
Now you've got roving bands of hipsters on the loose, suffering severe withdrawal symptoms due to not having Apple devices in their possession, AND not having had any choco-latte-mochachinos lately. In uncontrolled outbursts, they lash out at their trust fund administrators. Stricken with fear after dealing with numerous crazed hipsters, these administrators flee their jobs, causing the financial sector to collapse into ruin.
The financial sector collapse causes economic ruin across the nation. There is no employment, imports eventually trail off, and people starve to death. Entire communities disappear, and their infrastructure crumbles. The country is destroyed.
I have some beer and chips left from the Samsung vs Apple case. But I'll buy a new couch for this one!
-- Cheers!
...the headline is all that anyone is going to read (here and elsewhere). And it's not good PR for Google.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
So this is just a retaliatory action by Google. Some great court showdown is gonna happen soon, Apple is likely to unite with Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle against their arch enemy Google. So this is gonna be fun to watch.
Isn't it about time that the patent trolls, legitimite patent holders, and the whole litigation industry built up around them were pimp-slapped into realizing that patents are not business models.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Just get rid of software patents. Get rid of them entirely. Invalidate all the current ones and stop issuing new software patents. They are essentially patents on math and certain long numbers, which is absurd.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Appleâ(TM)s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. Iâ(TM)m going to destroy Android, because itâ(TM)s a stolen product. Iâ(TM)m willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
"I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, thatâ(TM)s all I want."
- Steve Jobs
Looks like Google's taken them up on the offer for war since the new Dictator is carrying out the same stupid plan. Hopefully this mutually assured destruction will get Apple to pull it's head out of it's ass. You don't stay rich giving all your money to lawyers. Would you simply acquiescing to the asshole's irrational demands? I wouldn't either.
I read the linked article. I don't see anywhere in it where it talks about a deal being reneged on. I only saw they they were going to loose some of their tax breaks.
"seven Motorola Mobility patents on features including location reminders, e-mail notification and phone/video players" -- doesn't sound very standards essential to me.
Maybe the thought of not being able to buy iPads and iPhones will wake up the U.S. to how badly screwed up the patent system is? Or maybe that thought will stop ITC from treating the case the same way it has treated cases against MotoGoogle.
The gloves are really off, the floodgates are open, the fat is on the fire etc. Although Google inherited cases from Motorola, this is the first time Google has directly sued Apple. Google has been reticent to take on Apple directly but they don't have much choice left now.
Interestingly, probably the sole patent victory for any Android manufacturer has been the ban on push e-mail from iCloud on Apple devices won by MotoGoogle, which still exists: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/13/apple-still-blocked-from-using-push-email-in-germany/
It is possible that a similar patent is among those involved here. Maybe the Motorola purchase wasn't as useless as Florian Muller makes it out to be...
ahh man that was so weird to read, but kinda satisfying to finally see apple get a taste of its own medicine.
'Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail'. Emerson
Best defence is good offence,
and this clearly makes sense.
Patents, copyrights, government protection of all of these things, what can possibly go wrong?
You can't handle the truth.
Not according to Jesus. Matthew 5:38-40.
Oddly, I thought a lot of the US believed in following the Bible quite closely...?
The article says that if they retain 2500 then they get the tax breaks: if they don't, they don't. They've clearly decided that the extra payroll isn't worth the breaks so they have chosen to give them up. That's the deal. Nothing is being "reneged" on. They are complying with the agreement.
IMHO such deals should not exist, but that's a seperate issue.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Only the bits that allow them to be judgmental of others.
... it's offense.
the ice cream licks back.
This reminds me of the line from the film Raging Bull by Martin Scorsese when Robert DeNiro, playing boxer Jake LaMotta, tells a thug, "Why don't I put the two of ya's in the ring together and watch you fuck each other?"
He was referring to a comment repeated that LaMotta's opponent was "pretty" because he hadn't taken hits to the face. LaMotta had responded "Yeah, he's so pretty I don't know whether to fight him or fuck him" and the thug had thought this was funny enough to repeat.
I don't know exactly what this has to do with the story of Apple and Google except it's amusing to see these two giants who ought to be fighting one another with honest competition trying to fuck each other with the same patent laws that are being used to fuck all of us.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I love many of the services google provides, but they were no less evil than any other corporation. Now if only people would wake up and realize large public corporations all give in to this behavior. It's how the game is played. Some corporations are more aggressive than others, but they all do it.
Only the bits that allow them to be judgmental of others.
Reminds me of the character named Joseph in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights." He would fling the curses of damnation at everyone else whilst hoarding the Biblical promises for himself.
so i was wondering, when investors hear this news are thinking of tech like a future commodity? Are they buying and selling futures based upon information and not the company itself? It seems to me that when lawsuits became a source of revenue it no longer became about the company and products/services but the future impact of, in this case, an apple ban.
What do you want to bet that Google bought Motorola purely to do this - i.e., that they don't really care about making the hardware, and so are willing to gut Motorola,in order to sue Apple ?
Note that much of the Internet runs on RAND, and RAND terms can always be dropped against your attacker if you get sued. Look for a major countersuit from Apple.
Self defense doesn't mean legal revenge. If someone hits you yesterday you can't hit them back tomorrow.
To be fair, ALL Christians HAVE to be hypocrites, across the board, because their bible is so consistently self-contradictory. Simple example: "Love thy neighbor" and "judge not lest ye be judged" versus "though shalt not suffer a witch to live" and Leviticus 18.
But back to your comment: You're every kind of wrong there is to be. You're morally wrong, because you're being judgmental, critical, and condescending, which is hardly what is considered "Christian" behavior. You're intellectually wrong, because you don't seem to understand that Christianity is not a single interpretation of the Christian bible from which one can pick and choose, but a whole mess of them: Methodist, Baptist, etc. I'm pretty sure that all it takes to be a Christian is a belief in the story of Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of mankind. And you're spiritually wrong, because if Martin Luther can come up with his own interpretation of the Bible and call it a Christian religion, then anyone else is free to do so as well. Your desire to condemn those who define their own spirituality -- "self-reformed" Christians, if you will -- is misplaced dogmaticism.
Um, Christians, by definition, do not have to adhere to Old Testament teachings/laws. You know, the ones that came before Christ?
Ironic, given your criticism of the GP being intellectually wrong. But, that's Slashdot!
It's to burn the competition to the ground. Its no different than any other large corporation wants to do. Its the way the world works. If you honestly believe its for anything less and somehow Google is the 'good guy' you are sadly deluding yourself.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
He sued the mac rumors website for talking about rumors for upcoming products. I believe it was over the G4 toaster design,
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Just make it rational and award them when they are truly deserving. Not just because you had an idea for a black box that does magic.
The concept of patent protection is a good thing, but how its being used in today's world is not.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Motorola Mobility did not renege on a deal. They are still moving from Libertyville to Chicago as planned. What they haven't done is maintained a high enough workforce to earn tax breaks.
According to the linked article you are led to believe that they are fighting over 'interoperability standards' ( with wifi )
If this is really what this is about, personally, i don't think a 'standard' should be patented or licensed. Once a standard like this is adopted by some governing body everyone gets access to it. Sure, have some sort of compatibility test so you can use the pretty logo, but its 100% free to everyone to see and implement on their own.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
So Apple called off their patent lawsuits for the thousand year old idea of slide to unlock? I guess nobody told me.
You mean they are sinners in need of a savior? If only God would send down his son in some sort of an incarnation and offer him up as a perfect sacrafice for the salvation of all men... oh wait that already happened 2000 years ago you freaking pharasee.
FYI, the bible is a collection of books by various authors which most Christians belive to be a document of salvation history, so the evolution of who God is and what his plan for Humanity changes a bit as he revels more of himself until the comming of Christ who fufils and perfects all that came before.
What you are doing is like looking at a history of science book and calling science hyprocritically wrong because Issac Newton's theories are incompatible with Quantum Mechanics.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Um, no true Christian has to adhere to Old Testament teachings/laws
Here, FTFY. As GP said, pick and choose, when it's about bashing gays, Christians thump the Bible (where it's in Old Testament), when it gets inconvenient - "by definition, do not have to adhere".
Apple will be able to buy Google lock, stock and barrel without breaking a sweat,
Apart from the minor issue that the US and/or EU competition bodies would definitely block such a takeover.
For Google's a jolly good fellow, for Google's a jolly good fellow, for Google's a jolly good feeeeeelllloooowww!! Which apple fanbois try to deny!
I love waking up and seeing good news on slashdot!
Apple will be able to buy Google lock, stock and barrel without breaking a sweat,
Apart from the minor issue that the US and/or EU competition bodies would definitely block such a takeover.
Not as cut and dry as we'd initially expect... technically, Google and Apple are not really competing. Apple is a hardware company, and Google is a web technolgies company... but actually, and by the vast majority, Google's revenue stream comes from advertising, while Apple's comes from, again, hardware. Apple doesn't license iOS, and Google gives Android away... so the competition between the two companies is not so obvious. With Motorola mobile in the mix, it appears it might be different but it is not... Apple could have bought Motorola with no problem, as there are countless other mobile competitors. In the same way Microsoft has many times purchased companies simply to kill a single competitor, Apple could do the same, so long as there is plenty of other competition in the market, and there is that. Slashdot commenters seem to forget, Android is not a company, nor is it a typical 'product.' It is Apache licensed open source software. Again, in the same way Oracle purchased Sun and killed Open Solaris (and, effectively, Solaris), Apple could do the same to Google and Android. However, as Android is OSS, it could fork and Apple would have no control over that even if they did purchase Google... the same way Oracle has no control over nor can Solaris benefit from illumOS or projects based on the forks of Open Solaris.
The Admin and the Engineer
They can keep doing what their lobbyist tell them and openly say that fuck law, they do what they want. Or they can recognize that there is something very rotten in all the patent bussiness. Banning Apple won't be an option for them.
Stepping back a bit, does it strike anyone else as extremely strange that we have a system in place in which the bodies that understand what they are doing (Google, Apple, Moto, etc.) turn to a body that doesn't (the courts) for decisions of can-or-cannot do?
Um, no true Christian has to adhere to Old Testament teachings/laws
Here, FTFY. As GP said, pick and choose, when it's about bashing gays, Christians thump the Bible (where it's in Old Testament), when it gets inconvenient - "by definition, do not have to adhere".
Sorry but your attitude is hypocrisy. You pick and choose what you consider immoral. Homosexual sex is considered a sin in the new testament as is heterosexual sin outside of a marriage as is adultery as is even lusting. So what kind of messed up logic do you people use that a guy fucking another guy up his ass is not immoral but adultery and sex before marriage are? What about statutory rape? It's all just sex right? I'm not just talking to the so-called "moral" atheists who support gays but the liberal "christians" as well. They are picking and choosing their sins. Sin is sin and sexual sin is sexual sin. Since same sex couples cannot ever be married in the eyes of god then they are perpetually in sexual sin. Gays do not get a free pass on sin. If you claim to be a christian but support gay marriage then you are a hypocrite and will burn in hell.
You can be against gay marriage and "gay" rights and yet not "bash" gays. It is not a binary choice. You can simply not support them while tolerating them in society.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Looks like a shoving match to me. (How many steps did I leave out?
Time to play the Apple game. I think this is a good idea, how about stopping the one company who's personal mission it is to cripple everyone else. Apple is the school yard bully and no one does anything to stop it, not the teachers, not the parents and not the principal, so maybe it's time that Apple gets put in timeout.
Google's marketable shares are entirely class B and possess fewer than half the voting rights. Apple could buy all they want and still not control google.
Google class A shares are held entirely by insiders who I doubt would be willing to sell.
Apple has repeatedly refused to license the patents and instead continues to just use them without paying. Was anyone actually surprised to see this happen? The word inevitable comes to mind. Not that I am particularly in love with the patent system, but Apple enjoys suing everyone else for patent violations and then they turn around and blatantly do it themselves. Someone at apple has been taking their stupid pills on the reg.
What self defense? Motorola was the one who sued Apple first.
At least somebody here gets it.
As long Motorola/Google gives this kind treatment to only Apple or maybe some world-famous patent troll companies.
--- An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
They are picking and choosing their sins.
EVERYONE picks and chooses their sins. Some people MAY choose to pick "all sins as dictated in the Bible", but that's no less "choosing sins" than anyone else. And, I know almost no one who actually selects "all sins as dictated in the Bible" as their sin list. There's some pretty archaic stuff in there.
Homosexual sex is considered a sin in the new testament as is heterosexual sin outside of a marriage as is adultery as is even lusting. So what kind of messed up logic do you people use that a guy fucking another guy up his ass is not immoral but adultery and sex before marriage are?
Under what kind of messed up logic must everyone's moral code be logically consistent with an arbitrarily selected book?
paintball
What you are doing is like looking at a history of science book and calling science hyprocritically wrong because Issac Newton's theories are incompatible with Quantum Mechanics.
No, it's like complaining that your science teacher has randomly scored the answers to your test, and when confronted about it, references alchemy when it supports their grading, but ignores alchemy when it refutes their grading.
paintball
I wouldn't go that far, but Google's personality is one where it doesn't agressively go out to destroy the other party. I forget the exact words Steve Jobs used when talking about destroying Android, but if Google were equal with Apple in that respect, they would have done this LONG ago.
Global Thermal Nuclear War
eom
We need something much better to encourage innovation, something that is as fair and unobtrusive as possible. Above all, it must respect freedom.
OK so when an investor goes to invest in tech are they really investing in the company or is it more of a futures trade based upon patents and lawsuits? Knowing this company has X patent and will buy based upon future lawsuits then dump the stock before the outcome at a specific time. it seems like tech could be a commodity at some point right?
They copied the mouse from Xerox, they copied Y from Z.
Losers. I am SICK of Apple.
MX
Shouldn't SCO sue them both for violating its patent troll patent.
Um, Christians, by definition, do not have to adhere to Old Testament teachings/laws. You know, the ones that came before Christ?
"For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
"It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid."
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place"
Who is this Jesus Matthew dude? I only know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Must be some liberal whiner.
Too bad all the hipsters have moved onto Android since grandma started using iDevices a few years ago.
Gr8Apes (679165) wrote:
I do believe Google started the entire shebang by ripping off Apple's designs, or so says the lawsuits.
ALERT !!
Sock Puppet from Apple, Inc. Sighted !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Funny how people went ballistic when Apple wanted to charge either $1 or 25 cents for Firewire, but now 2.5 % is considered "reasonable".
model of science argue exactly that—individual personalities (and indeed bodies) are the same kind of emergent order (hence behavior) that a company, or indeed a society is, at the abstract level. Just a giant information processing system that imports energy from connected systems and exports entropy; the particular characteristics are the emergent epiphenomena of the system.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Somebody is still butt hurt that Apple started using Intel processors...
"Can't we all just get along!"
Well, If you are a Christian ( and there are some wackos out there that believe this) that does believe that every thing in the Bible is a binding commandment that they must follow, then yes. These aren't what you would call fundamentalists, but a crazy group of people that follow a good deal of the kosher laws as well as the Christian ones.
If you are not a Christian at all, then you can't really say what it means because you don't beleive any of it anyway. Or at lease you sound very odd telling people who do believe that they should believe something else, but you yourself don't beleive that. Like a mortally obese guy trying to get some thin people to switch gyms.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Or what do you think? That all those ignorants and schizophrenics and primitives and religious would let YOU keep playing with your toys and b esides making it evident they are not worth the soil the eat on, from you? And let you win over India, China, Africa, Araby, Asia, Latinamerica, just because you can and they have to trail? ANd do this til their extinction? No! Make all the noise NOW that they have so many schizophrenics jumping on any word they hear and destroying it nicely without people noticing it.
And I'm the queen of English.
Jesus does not give you a free reign to be an asshole, which is what most christians believe they are given.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.