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In Wake of Samsung Verdict, HTC Does Not Intend To Settle
Taco Cowboy writes "The recent lost by Samsung in a court battle against Apple apparently does not put a dent to other parties determination to fight Apple, inside and outside of the court system HTC's Chairperson, Ms. Cher Wang, has publicly re-iterated her belief that the $1 billion jury verdict against Samsung in the U.S. 'does not mean the failure of the entire Google Android ecosystem.'"
Putting aside the question of whether a company can patent stuff like a rectangle with rounded edges and other obvious design features, all these patent lawsuits of recent years have made me wonder how it's possible these days for any software or hardware startup to even get going. It seems almost a given that any company that comes up with any new idea or piece of software these days, and subsequently makes even a modicum of money off of it, is pretty much guaranteed to get hit by a slew of patent lawsuits, some perhaps from big-name companies with deep pockets and lots of lawyers.
As someone who has thought about going into indie software development myself, this scares the hell out of me. I can't imagine investing a ton of time and money into some innovative new product, only to be drowned into bankruptcy by patent trolls and the software big guns who have quietly patented every obvious element of design and every trivial element of every bit of software and hardware (even those with with decades of clear prior art). I'm not sure I would even consider trying anymore without the investment of a big patent law firm just to protect me.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
And it's not because they're like "Cheap iPhone knock-offs".
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
Of course they won't settle. One should never negotiate with terrorists.
Of course it doesn't. Apple was after Samsung for the phone (hardware) and touchwiz (interface) components that were "copied". They are not interested in fighting Android (Google); yet....
K Man
When you put HTC phones, iPhone, and certain (not all) Samsung phones side by side, the HTC ones are the ones that look different. Which means Apple won't succeed, and won't try to succeed, with charges related to design patents. On the other hand, the different looks may also be the reason or part of the reason why Samsung is selling more phones right now than HTC.
It's pretty well accepted that the patent system, in its current form, is completely dysfunctional. Apple has been blatantly abusing this system for years. Recently, their reduced innovation and eroding market share have led to increased lawsuits -- they've been holding these cards for a rainy day. There is a real issue in this country where literal interpretation trumps common sense in the eyes of the law and that needs to be rectified. Could you imagine if people actually read and literally interpreted the entire bible? People might actually start to realize what a farce religion is as well. How about people thinking the second amendment should give everybody the right to go to their local sports store and purchase an assault rifle? I'm all for the second amendment, but no document should ever trump common sense - these weapons didn't even exist when the second amendment was written! Why was a jury even involved in this Apple vs Samsung dispute if the decision was solely based on blindly following the rules of a terrible, dated system that should no longer apply in this industry? As long as people in this country continue to ignore common sense, progress and innovation will continue to slow to a crawl. Apple sees the writing on the wall and they're hitting the panic-button. While nobody can blame them for what they're doing, we can blame the patent system and the entire process that goes with it that allows them the ability to bully competition and kill innovation.
I've been following this since day one, and I gota say, Apple comes out looking like the bad guy every time. Litigate > innovate in Apple's eyes. Always has been. Remember the Apple clones? Every card carrying geek here knows that Apple "borrowed" a vast majority of the iPhone's functionality from smart phones that existed 5-7 years before the first iPhone. That Apple suing because they were "copied" is utterly ridiculous, at least to people who watched the smart phone race from the beginning. Only the uninitiated find any validity to Apple's arguments.
And Apple, you feel people are being deceived into buying non Apple products? You who deceive people into buying Apple products with deceptive ads, demagoguery and appealing to people's ignorance about technology? How long ago was it that you claimed the Power PC was better than the Intel chip you now sport? Where did the in house Apple benchmarks go that supported your wild claims that the Mac was faster than the PC. It wasn't that long ago that you changed the meaning of PC (oh that's a workstation, not a PC) so you could falsely claim that your computers were better than any PC running any OS. Deceived indeed. Your empire is built upon deception, hardware lock-in and lack of freedom for consumers.
Problem is, Samsung still owns important patents on those modern displays, so if LG makes them for Apple instead, Samsung can just makes sure it increases licensing costs on those patents.
The issue is that even if you find a manufacturer to manufacture alternatives to Samsung that in all likelihood:
- Samsung still produces the core components you need to manufacture the technology
and/or:
- Samsung has patents on the technology you are producing
When you're producing a device that makes use of so many different wireless technologies, modern displays, audio, battery powered, cameras and so on and so forth, it's almost a certainty that you can't write Samsung out of the equation completely.
The jury did not seem to think objectively [1] and also appear swayed by the foreman who seems to have gotten away with throwing out the biggest piece of evidence in Samsung's defense[2]. I was surprised that the trial went as it did, handled by a judge with very little experience[3], considering the future of the mobile industry was riding on it. "Rounded corners and Rectangular design"? Righ, Apple, you might as well be suing everyone in the industry becuase I can't find a device that _doesn't_ infringe on that. Apple went after Samsung because it's their biggest competitor.
[1] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2012082510525390
[2] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120828225612963
[3] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57497096-37/apple-v-samsung-why-is-judge-koh-so-angry/
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