“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
MacDailyNews Note: HTC makes Google’s rebadged “Nexus One.”
Apple reinvented the mobile phone in 2007 with its revolutionary iPhone, and did it again in 2008 with its pioneering App Store, which now offers more than 150,000 mobile applications in over 90 countries. Over 40 million iPhones have been sold worldwide.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Boom! Here we go (finally)! We’ve been waiting for this day for what seems like forever.
A sickening chill just swept through the executive offices of many an iPhone wannabe. This time there’s no poorly-written contract signed by an unprepared sugared water salesbozo.
• We’ve been pushing the state-of-the-art in every facet of design… We’ve been innovating like crazy for the last few years on this and we’ve filed for over 200 patents for all of the inventions in iPhone. And we intend to protect them. – Apple CEO Steve Jobs when unveiling iPhone, January 9, 2007
• We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP, in which case we will go after them. We will not stand for having our IP ripped-off and we will use any weapons at our disposal [to stop it]. – Apple COO Tim Cook, January 21, 2009
See also: The specific Apple patents over which Apple is suing HTC
They should change their name to XTC
Cause they musta been high…..
“This going to be better than the O.J. trial.”
But let’s pray for an educated jury. If the OS fits!
Oh my god, can you imagine if Apple wins this lawsuit?
The smartphone industry might be forced come up with some original ideas instead of ripping off the iPhone continuously.
And if they come up with original ideas, they’re in danger of creating products that can actually compete with it.
Or am I being too optimistic?
Microsoft will be the next defendant.
@DogGone
The PsyStar lawsuit was a different matter. It was about whether or not a PC manufacturer had the right to install Mac OS X in a PC. It was about license agreements, not patent infringement. In fact, PsyStar did not violate any patent or IP. It was a license terms agreement violation. PsyStar didn’t really steal any IP. They did not modify Mac OS X nor they claimed it for themselves. Having lost, PsyStar could have continue selling Windows/Linux boxes. They didn’t because they were stupid enough to fight an already lost war: Terms were clear, they were violating it, lawsuits cost money and they lost it.
In the case of the iPhone and HTC, it’s a much deeper problem. A patent and/or IP lawsuit means: “Those guys stole my stuff and made it theirs”. Plus, HTC is not a mom and pop’s shop (with all due respect to the excellent mom and pop’s shops I’ve known and work with), but a company in the spotlight. They won’t have the stupid “Oh, but they are small, and Apple is a big bully thing” on their side.
As long as Apple has a case, they can win. Not like the bozo IP lawsuit from SCO/Caldera to IBM/Novell/Linux where they had nothing at all.
Now, despite of all this, I agree: This is going to be long and painful (and expensive!). Let’s remember that despite de Windows “gaffe”, Apple already won a case agains an Apple II cloner called -I believe- Apricot. So, there’s a precedent about Apple fighting and winning.
This is brilliant. Instead if filing against “friend” Google, file against HTC. This will make all other manufacturers think twice, especially if Android features (like Multitouch) are part of the suit.
“Finally” is the most appropriate word.
“Apple should sue Google as well.”
The great part about this approach is they don’t have to sue Google directly.
They can sue HTC for shipping/selling products that violate Apple’s patents. That will send a clear message to Motorola, Samsung, etc. — you better be careful if you’re going to base your product line on someone else’s OS.
(Good lawyers, good strategy.)
@AL
Apple has HARDWARE patents. They are out to sue the HARDWARE manufacturer.
Google is SOFTWARE company.
Clear?
I have been waiting for this for so long,.., I am glad that Apple is finally going after the copy cats!
It is about the damn time!
@ qka, you’re talking out of your ass.
Can I “ass” you a question… Does anyone have a breath mint, or some binaca……
It’s a good strategy that Apple decided to wait before going after the thieves.
Let them steal and make their devices, license and market and commit massive amounts of money. Now that Apple finally goes on the offinsive, and most likely wins, not only will the bandits lose in the courts, but they’ll be forced to start at square one and try to design something original.
Meanwhile Apple continues development, creating new, more advanced products, getting more patents and moving lightyears ahead.
@Slater… Apple is NOT Microsoft. MS never created anything, instead copying, stealing and acquiring their products. Apple invents, takes chances and drives the industry.
The moment HTC stepped out of the shadow of Microsoft, BOOM!, they get burned.
This began two years ago with HD2 and Dragon, which were running WinMo 6.5 at the time. Peter Chou was pressured to put Android on the HD2, making it a lethal <strike>illegal</strike> combination, invoking the wrath of Apple legal.
Andy Rubin and Mario Queiroz will be subpoenaed. Or is that p0wned?
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Sweet, O-SO-SWEET!
How many are calling their legal teams this morning?
MS – better delay your phone OS for a bit while the lawyers review it…… Oh, and about those touch features on the iPad copies…… Hmmmm….
Nokia – Look sharp here guys……
Google, Good thing you are diversifying into the Energy (etc.) markets, and that you are so rich, and that you dominate the search engine market, and……. But your “Partners” are fair game……..
Some fortunate lawyers are going to end up with some part of $40 Billion…….
HEY! That ‘unprepared sugared water salesbozo’ was hired by ‘the man that can do no wrong’, Steve Jobs.
Have some respect here.
@qka
I understand about hardware patents. However, I would like to add a couple of points.
1) HTC is the OEM of the Nexus One. Nokia is suing Apple NOT Foxconn who actually made the iPhone. Google is in the same situation as HTC makes the Nexus One which Google sells as its own. The Nexus One is a Google Branded phone which was made for Google to be sold by Google.
2) Also, Apple has several UI patents as well which any violation that arises comes from Android and WinMo infringing on the UI patents.
/cue shotgun pump
“S’up boys?”
@Spark
I want DETAILS!! Which 20 patents is Apple claiming that HTC infringed upon.
This is a newswire story!
You want details? Wait for the media hounds to get up off their fat-asses to make the news.
@slater,
How about you build something… i copy it… sell it as my own…
anyway, copying DOESN’T innovate, but does compete
@slater
patents.. the only way to <strike>stop</strike>preserve innovation and competition
Youse sees the glass half-empty, doncha?
…”patents.. the only way to stop innovation and competition.”
Right… Because the best way to innovate and compete is to take someone else’s idea and use it in your product, rather than come up with a better idea on your own.
Suing manufacturers instead of Google is just brilliant. Google is a strategic partner. A lawsuit would seriously undermine that partnership. If manufacturers are found guilty, they won’t be able to sell Android phones. If they can’t offer phones with Android, Google won’t be able to get the OS out there on the devices. Google loses without being sued. Besides, by selling HTC (one of the biggest handset makers), Apple makes sure that it really doesn’t matter whether the OS is Android, WinMob, Symbian or anything else; as long as the patents are violated, they just can’t sell those devices.
Multiple OS birds with the same stone!
When somebody sues Apple, there is normally a set of knee-jerk (well, jerk actually) responses from a certain subset of the readership whining about patents being a bad thing and a hindrance to innovation, the Federal government and (from MDN itself) some nonsense about “can’t compete, litigate”.
And yet, here we are with a – hopefully – winnable patent dispute where Apple is the plaintiff and we see nothing from the MDN fanboi cheerleader editorial team nor anything from the libertarian/teabagger crowd.
Personally, I hope Apple hands HTC’s ass to them (so long as all the patents are valid) – but then I think that the “Apple uber alles” crowd also needs to grow up and accept that sometime Apple will fail to defend its own infractions on somebody else’s IP.
Oh, c’mon people. All of the tech industry is copying off of somebody’s something or other. And you can’t say Apple never does (they’ve fought, lost, and settled plenty of lawsuits in the past, some for significant cash outlays). I’m fine with Apple’s action, and hope they are successful, but to act like they’re holier than all is just ridiculous and disingenuous. And after all, its hardly even about justice – the lines shift and the rules change all the time.
@qka
Google physically sells the Nexus One. They are the sole seller, not HTC.