“New job postings reveal that Apple is shopping for lawyers to reinforce its litigation team as the company continues to vigorously defend its intellectual property,” Josh Ong reports for AppleInsider.
“Discovered by AppleInsider, two separate postings for a Sr. Patent Litigation Counsel and Legal Counsel, Litigation appeared on Apple’s job board on Friday,” Ong reports. “The job openings come just days after Reuters reported that Apple lead patent counsel Richard “Chip” Lutton is leaving the company. B.J. Watrous, who formerly served as deputy general counsel at Hewlett Packard, will take over as Apple’s new Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, according to his LinkedIn profile. According to the report, Apple has been on a ‘hiring spree’ for its intellectual property team, reportedly bringing on litigation specialist Noreen Krall from Sun Microsystems.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple’s U.S. ITC patent victory threatens future of Google’s Android – July 16, 2011
Unfortunate it is that so much money into such activities dumped must be.
Who are you, Yoda?
Shakespeare me thinks.
…Shakespeare was “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” – Henry VI, Part Two, Act 4, Scene II.
And that quote referred to lawyers as being the protectors of truth and independence, because it was Jack Cade’s illegitimate claim to the throne that he was trying to protect – by killing anyone (the lawyers) who might stand in his way of complete power.
So, you’re saying shakespeare invented irony? And this quote has been misused ever since?
Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don’t get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony’s not really a, a high priority. We haven’t had any irony here since about, uh, ’83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at. — C.D. Bales in Roxanne.
truth and lawyers in the same sentence….what a childlike imagination you have!
…another oldie but goodie:
“Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” – Jesus of Nazareth
With many new key patents finally becoming official, Apple is mobilizing for all out war against infringers.
No, more like Yogurt. May the schwartz be with you.
Apple needs to be careful here. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. IOS 5 rips a lot of stuff from Android. And let’s not forget all that Apple stole from Xerox for the Mac OS and what they ripped off CPM for Apple DOS.
Apple spent 4 or more years developing iOS before the first iPhone was released in 2007, and declared at the time of release that they would vigorously defend their IP, and many elements of their touch UI were already had patent applications, either granted or pending. The closest thing to a smart phone as we know them today was a blackberry (remember them…?) and the iPhone was unlike anything ever seen in the phone market segment before – a literal computer in your pocket. It wasn’t until after it took the market by storm that others stampeded to get into the same space, despite all those criticisms that without a physical keyboard nobody would want an iPhone or pure-touch screen phone. Android was quickly cobbled together with stolen code (just ask Oracle) and a virtual copy UI to the iPhone, including the gestures, icons, apps, etc. To an uniformed eye many of the new products looked remarkably like… hold on… wait…yup, an Iphone! A blatant attempt to horn in on a brand new market segment without doing all the research and innovation it took to develop it in the first place (Apple.)
My only real question is what took so long? Back when the iPhone was released in 2007 there were many articles describing the patents that applied to the phone and the underlying OS, so I just figured Apple had made sure to cover their bases, especially on UI related stuff, so they wouldn’t get screwed like they were by Microsoft years ago. It was really odd seeing all these lookalike products from Samsung, HTC, Moto, etc flooding the market over the last couple of years without much response from Apple, to the point where many people stupidly think Apple copied the other guys in this arena. But… finally, maybe… for the non-innovators, the chickens are finally coming home to roost.
The patents are only now being awarded. Just because you apply for a patent doesn’t mean you have a patent. It is a complex and long process.
Now add to the fact that you can’t just sue someone who is infringing. You have to notify them, permit them to change their infringement, possibly get into licensing discussions (particularly if you are licensing the patent to anyone else), and a whole slew of other actions, all of which take time. You can then file complaints, but now you have your paper trail which documents how you demanded the infringer stop stealing you IP.
You also now have someone (like HTC, Motorola, Samsung) which has sold devices that infringe on your IP, and thus you can prove significant damages.
WOW! You’re confusing the accusations that MSFT rippoed off CP/M for MS-DOS and attributing it to Apple! Further, Apple gave Xerox a BIG CHUNK of Apple’s stock as part of the LICENSING AGREEMENT for Xerox’s research. Apple invented the GUI, though Xerox did do some early work.
The idea that Apple “rips off a lot of stuff from android” is a flat out lie told by android fans who are in denial that there is nothing innovative about android.
You should watch this brilliant video that explains what innovation is, and how Apple innovates and didn’t rip off Xerox.
i think i saw that video here (or some apple site).
do you have a link to it?
i tried to find it again and couldn’t.
Wrong. Apple got Xerox’s permission and gave it stock in return. Xerox’s aim was just geeky showmanship, but Apple’s aim was to bring value to Xerox’s ideas for the benefit of mankind. If Apple were the thief, Xerox would had sued Apple’s pants off, but it didn’t. If it weren’t for Xerox-Apple efforts we would still be be typing in exotic codes into DOS to get everything done on a computer. Geeks don’t like being dethroned from their exalted position in the computing priesthood totem pole; and they are still angry after all these years by spreading FUD about Apple stealing from Xerox.
Jon_Doh
What is apple ripping off from Hemdroid? Where are you basing your info, also how long is it going to be brought up “Apple stealing from Xerox”? read on douche.
Myth:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs saw Xerox PARC product such as the GUI, either on a tour or at a trade show, then stole the PARC GUI implementation without permission, to create the Apple Lisa and the original Mac OS / Macintosh GUI.
Fact:
Apple obtained permission ahead of the Xerox PARC visit. In addition, Apple provided compensation in exchange for the various Xerox PARC ideas such as the GUI.
The Motley Fool, financial publication of investment news and provider of investment advisory services, on the real story of Apple and PARC:
“Xerox could have owned the PC revolution, but instead it sat on the technology for years. Then, in exchange for the opportunity to invest in a hot new pre-IPO start-up called “Apple,” the Xerox PARC commandos were forced — under protest — to give Apple’s engineers a tour and a demonstration of their work. The result was the Apple Macintosh, which Microsoft later copied to create Windows.” [1]
Xerox Received Financial Compensation from Apple
The compensation for the Xerox PARC technology sharing deal with Apple was in form of $1 million dollars pre-IPO Apple stock / investment (if Apple does well, Xerox will benefit from Apple’s success).
The PARC demo took place in 1979. Xerox received its compensation in exchange for showing some prototypes that Xerox didn’t know what to do with.
“November: Steve Jobs and software engineer Bill Atkinson visit the Xerox PARC lab in Palo Alto, California. More Apple employees will visit a month later.” [2]
“Jobs and several Apple employees including Jef Raskin visited Xerox PARC in December 1979 to see the Xerox Alto. Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100,000 shares of Apple at the pre-IPO price of $10 a share.” [3]
I think he’s referencing the notifications system in iOS 5 as being copied from Android. But again, it’s one of those things that Apple may have a patent on or have applied for a patent on and Google got it to market first due to the fact that they do so many little updates. Who knows.
Apple’s had notifications in iOS for a long time, and the thing is, I think they are accusing Apple of stealing the idea because they don’t know it was already there… or because the way Apple’s refreshed it in this version is similar to the way the google one looks.
It doesn’t really matter though.
Anyone who thinks Apple isn’t the singular innovator in the computer industry is just being irrational.
Apple has no legal alternative but to go after everyone that is infringing their IP. In the eyes of the law, if they don’t defend it, they’re abandoning it. They’d be wide open to a class action lawsuit from their shareholders if they DIDN’T sue all these people. PLUS, if they don’t defend it in a timely manner, they forfeit the rights to their IP entirely.
Jon_Doh doesn’t know what he’s spouting off about. He should do some basic research…This myth about Apple stealing from Xerox just won’t go away, but it simply isn’t true.
Yup… looks like Apple just had to pay 8 million to an iPod list company and stole IPs from S3… it’s no wonder Apple needs more lawyers… LOL
Apple steals IPs just like any other company. They are not perfect nor play by the books!
Thank you for that LOL. No one laughs at loud at their own sorry attempts at jokes and snides quite like you.
I just hope everyone in the industry chills the hell out and that we get real patent reform some day.
The current reform moving to a “First to file” system is not going to make anything better either. You’ll still have tons of companies ‘patenting’ every thing under the sun.
Maybe when the software industry becomes a deserted wasteland in the USA we’ll wake up and realize we ‘litigated’ everyone out of the market.
First to file would be worse because it has nothing to do with actually doing the research.
Those who want “reform” just want something for nothing- they want Apple et. al. to disclose, but not get any rights.
I’ve yet to see a proposal from anyone for an actual reform… they just bitch about the existence of intellectual property.
These people generally aren’t too fond of real property either.
I think a patent should only be awarded based on a proven working product.
You have to reduce it to practice to get a patent as it is not. The idea that patents about ideas is a myth from the anti-patent people.
The FDA Delays drugs from being in the market for years, thus before you could get your “proof” of a working product, your drug could be reverse engineered by a company that has better contacts with the FDA, does some bribes and then they get the patent.
Apple wouldn’t have to do this if the US patent system wasn’t so broken – things are reaching a crisis point related to software patents in the US: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/jul/15/app-developers-withdraw-us-patents
When innovations start coming out of the UK, they can lecture us on Patents.
The system really isn’t that broken. What’s reaching a point is the shrill exclamations from the people who think that google should be able to copy apple without repercussions and those who think that there is no such thing as intellectual property– or any other kind of property.
Any patent system that spawns an industry whose sole purpose is to collect patents, hold them without producing any products, and sue successful businesses — aka the patent trolls à la Paul Allen style — is clearly broken. End of story.
Apple patented Data Detectors in 1996. When did it finally bring that idea to market? 10 years later? So what you’re saying is that Apple’s patent should be invalidated because in 1996 they didn’t have a working product to go with the patent.
all Apple has to do is put out the word that it is hiring layers to scare the pants off its competitors.
wow!…why is apple on this website always the good guys?….every comment is directed to the competition!…r guys guys that “die hard fans” of apple?…u know that whether u like it or not Microsoft ain’t falling to apple…apple also is infringing on other company’s patents which soon will come out….stop making apple like they r the cleanest company in the world gees!…its embarrassing for yr lack of knowledge about the company’s history.