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Qualcomm Says It Won Case Banning Sale of Older iPhones in China (bloomberg.com)
Qualcomm says it has won a ruling in China against Apple that bans the sale of some iPhone models in that country. From a report: The Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court ruled that Apple is infringing two Qualcomm patents and issued injunctions against the sale of the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, the San Diego, California-based chipmaker said in a statement Monday. The most recent models introduced in September, the iPhone XS, XR and XS Max, are not covered by the ban.
Patents make everything better! Imagine trying to be a startup competitor to Qualcomm - ha, the USPTO will maintain their market dominance for them, no matter how bad the security is on their baseband radios. Which is interesting, because high-clearance individuals also use those phones. Even Intel is having trouble inventing around what Qualcomm got to first.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Patents do eventually expire, though we can argue against whether or not they do so quickly enough. The problem with eliminating them entirely is that you trade one problem (market dominance by patent holder) for another (market dominance by large established manufacturers) and I'm not sure there's an argument for the latter being ultimately better than the former.
I do find it hard to believe that it's impossible to design around Qualcomm's patents. It may merely be expensive and difficult, but I suspect that has to do with the nature of the industry and the limited number of individuals capable of producing meaningful work within it.
The problem is patent holders (and some judges) who believe that ideas and concepts can and should be patented. A patent is supposed to cover a specific application of an idea, not the idea itself. Putting a phone to sleep between packets should be available to everyone provided they find their own way of doing it rather than copying the specific electronic layout.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.