“Patent litigation takes time. Most of the patents that large companies have asserted against Android haven’t even come to judgment yet, and new assertions continue to be made,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “But the time has passed for any reasonable, unbiased person to deny that Android has a serious patent infringement problem that continues to exacerbate. Whether or not one subscribes to Steve Jobs’s description of Android as a “stolen product”, the plot is definitely thickening that Google and its hardware partners face IP issues.”
Mueller reports, “Here’s a list of the related findings by courts and the ITC (a trade agency with quasijudicial authority) according to which Android devices infringe no less than 11 different Apple and Microsoft patents that the same courts deemed valid, in chronological order of the decisions and excluding any rulings that were overturned on review or appeal”
Read more in the full article here.
I suppose the legal costs are pennies compared to the money they might receive if patents are licenses. But, jeesh. Talk about taking time. By the time that happens these technologies will be so far behind us.
Not necessarily. Some methods for doing things or tech innovations are used for a very long time. TCP/IP for example.
Very likely if key patents hold up, Apple will be able to get swifter justice on future patents that were filed in the past few years.
Android might end up in serious trouble with its very future uncertain.
Great news.
Here’s the thing that people don’t seem to get. Google is the 21st century Microsoft. They do not innovate, they copy. Were it not for Eric Schmidt being privy to confidential information while being on Apple’s board, the Google Phones and OS would look like warmed over blackberry devices. Instead Google chose to copy the look and feel of the iPhone and call it innovative. How much more Microsoft can you be?
Facebook was successful. So Google tried and tried to create a social platform to compete with FaceBook. They worked on it until Google+ arrive and now they’ve got something. It’s the same story though. Google did not invent or innovate the idea (neither did FaceBook for that matter) but they were attracted to success and worked on duplicating it.
Nexus Q? An expensive version of the AppleTV.
I am sad that Google has apparently given up putting effort into their core competency, i.e. Search. By now I expected Search to be some mind blowing out of this world Artificial Intelligence enhanced experience. I expected Google’s search to be like Super Siri on steroids. Intelligent Agents. All that happy shit. But noooooo…. Google is off trying to recreate itself in Apple’s image.
They want to sell gadgets, they want to sell music, apps, books and magazines, i.e. create an ecosystem for their gadgets. I.e. they want to be Apple.
Meanwhile Microsoft has quietly caught up with them in search while they act like the plate spinning geek in the circus.
Google, you will never be Apple. I know Apple, I’ve known Apple and you are no Apple. You just don’t have the magic.
Then again, I don’t know if Apple does any more either.
The sad part of the story is that our legal system is so slow it alowes ip to be copied with out hesitation. It’s been 5 yrs now and the patents a finally wining some cases. The damage is done.
The damage done to Apple is irreparable from the cloning of iOS. The cows have been let out of the barn and they’re never coming back. Android OS has immense market share that it should never have had and nothing is going to take it away. Wall Street favors Android as the OS that will end the reign of the iPhone. I don’t think Apple can do anything to change that perception and shareholders are losing out on valuation. I don’t foresee any patents seriously slowing Android growth. I’m willing to bet this temporary injunction against the Nexus only lasts a couple of weeks at most and then it will be business as usual for Google.
Well, at least they can gather damages…..millions and millions.
Did you even watch the WWDC keynote? Apple has definitely still got it. Steve Jobs built the Apple train (best and brightest employees, culture of excellence, product vision, and the amazing upcoming spaceship campus) and set it in motion, now all Tim needs to do is lay down the tracks in front of it, and I think he’s already proven that he’s the best in the world at doing just that. On top of that, his performance at allthingsd was terrific (I especially like how he handled that douchebag google employee with no class that tried to call him out during the q and a session).
Side note: what’s with all the douchebaggery at google?
schmit the mole-creepy douche
brin
brin- nerd douche variety, re the iPhone with Carlie Rose: “we didn’t know what they were doing, they didn’t know what we were doing” (of course no mention that schmit was on Apple’s board)
rubin- another creepy douche that says whatever is convenient for him at the time, for example bashing Siri when it came out, now of course copying it
Not to mention google having a lobbying budget that is TEN TIMES Apple’s lobbying budget; if that doesn’t prove they’re douches, I don’t know what does.
Good point about Google’s lobbying budget, didn’t know that.
But, that lobbying isn’t all for nefarious purposes: they *did* step up to oppose SOPA, the RIAA/MPAA-bought legislation that attacks everything that makes the internet such a useful and powerful tool.
It’s not 100% clear if Apple supported SOPA initially, if they did they were very definitely in the wrong.
Good point as well. I don’t know enough about SOPA to comment on it specifically, but it’s too bad google has been making itself so hard to like (e.g. lying about it’s wifi data collecting, engineering a workaround to internet browsers privacy settings, etc.).
Almost every organization has objectively good and bad points. We can agree with those points without liking the organization.
SOPA, its sibling PIPA, and the international treaty ACTA are all the worst sort of corporate corruption you can imagine. All three have been stymied for now due to massive online and offline resistance. If you’re taking the time to know Google as the enemy, it is 100x more important that you know what these attempted laws are about and why they’re so evil.
Good stuff to know, I’ll keep my eyes open for those things. In my defense though, it’s not difficult to find things that makes google seem pretty lame 🙂
you got a link for video on douchebag trying to call him out? I haven’t seen this.
Yeah, it’s on the allthingsd website, it’s one of the last questions that was asked.
Were Schmidt never a part of Apple’s board, this thread wouldn’t be here.
I think there’s a problem besides the obvious. Being a website company can only take you so far. You have to branch out, supplying more SOMETHING so that it makes your stakeholders happy and keep you in business. I they have hit a wall.
I especially like the over-scrolling/rubberbanding patent. I recently used an app that just stopped when I reached the end of the page. It was awkward an I tried to scroll a couple more times just to be sure I had reached the bottom. With the over scroll bounce API, you get to the bottoms and you see the space and the bounce back. Very cool, very natural, yet not obvious until it was imagined and implemented. It is
Just one more thing that makes iOS devices so natural feeling.
Apple is making headway, finally ….. The settlement / damage dollars Apple will be owed will be huge!
I want android to be successful because it fuels competition and is good but for the consumer, but not by making money at Apple’s or anyone elses expense. Innovation is when someone creates, not copies.
Android is not going anywhere, and it shouldn’t, but it must pay .
Android shouldn’t have to pay (license) if Apple doesn’t want to license. They DO need to remove each and every feature that they’ve stolen from Apple- unified search, multi-touch, slide to unlock- EVERYTHING. They’d be NOTHING without stolen IP and if they can’t succeed without it, then they deserve to fail.
Androids success does nothing to ‘drive innovation’ – if anything it’s discouraging for it. Why would ANY company want to invest billions of dollars on R&D just so android can fscking steal the tech as soon as it’s unveiled? You’ve got a gear missing if you think that Android is good for the industry. Microsoft is playing more fair than google at this point- you should be rooting for windows phone- at least they tried to be original.
Androids success does nothing to ‘drive innovation’ – if anything it’s discouraging for it.
EXACTLY. That is the entire point.
What the market requires is competition. If companies can only imitate, I have no problem with shooting them out of the water. This is the cutting edge of tech, not the toaster market. Invent or die.
Very well said. You should be Apple’s legal team.
Ford, Mazda, Holden, Toyota. They all have four wheels. Nobodies suing anybody.
Uh, George Selden did try to patent the design of the automobile with a pre-dated patent in 1877 even though he never actually built an auto. One person who refused to pay any royalties to Selden was Henry Ford. Guess who won in the Selden vs. Ford case?
I don’t think Henry Ford ever tried to patent the idea of an auto having four wheels. I think with wagons, stage coaches, carts, etc. pre-dating the auto other auto manufacturers could have claimed any such patent would have been based on “prior art.”
Ref.: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsseldona.htm
Henry Ford did not invent the automobile.
People often think he did, but he didn’t.
Karl Benz invented the automobile.
Henry Ford introduced the assembly line.
You are correct. I knew that and should have mentioned it in my post. I guess I was trying to make a reference to Leo’s naming of Ford in his list of auto manufacturers.
As a side and unrelated note, one invention of Henry Ford that most people don’t associate with him is the charcoal briquette . He made the briquettes from his car factory’s waste wood scrap and chips. He and a relative of his formed the Kingsford Products Company that supplies 80% of the charcoal sold in the U.S. today.
Ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsford_(charcoal)
‘Leo’ anonymous coward, I’m nominating you for the most irrelevant and inane comment of the week. As I stated above, we’re dealing with the cutting edge of technology here, not the automobile market, which is well over a century old. Exploding DUH Factor. 😛
This issue won’t ever get resolved. The Xbox/Motorola patent case still hasn’t concluded.