“I just provided a detailed update on the current state of affairs in the ITC investigation of Apple’s first complaint against HTC, and I saved a true gem for this separate blog post,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“It’s a story that’s remarkable per se — allegedly, Android started at Apple — and it could also have major legal implications for a future Apple lawsuit against Google or possibly even for Apple’s dispute with Motorola Mobility after its proposed acquisition by Google,” Mueller reports. “Here’s a quote from Apple’s recent reply brief to the ITC staff’s and HTC’s petitions for review of the Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) initial determination that found HTC to infringe two patents, including the ‘263 ‘realtime API’ patent:”
Android and Mr. Rubin’s relevant background does not start, as HTC would like the Commission to believe, with his work at General Magic or Danger in the mid-1990s. In reality, as the evidence revealed at the hearing, Mr. Rubin began his career at Apple in the early 1990s and worked as a low-level engineer specifically reporting to the inventors of the ‘263 [realtime API] patent at the exact time their invention was being conceived and developed. […] It is thus no wonder that the infringing Android platform used the claimed subsystem approach of the ‘263 patent that allows for flexibility of design and enables the platform to be “highly customizable and expandable” as HTC touts. […] While Mr. Rubin’s inspiration for the Android framework may not be directly relevant to the pending petitions for review, that HTC felt compelled to distort this history is illustrative of the liberties it takes in attacking the ALJ’s [initial determination] and the substantial evidence supporting the ALJ’s findings.
Mueller reports “Look at the first two sentences again: ‘Android […] does not start […] at General Magic or Danger.’ According to this filing, it all started at Apple!”
Much, much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Holy Moly, the plot thickens!