back to article Tick-tock, Apple: Obama has just days to stop US iPhone iPad sales ban

The US International Trade Commission has delayed its decision on whether or not some of Samsung's mobile devices infringe on Apple patents. The commission said that it wouldn't finish its investigation into the mobes and fondleslabs until next week, without giving any explanation. The ruling concerns fruity patents that deal …

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  1. Matt_payne666

    I think he should ban them... they all seem to be legacy products so it shouldn't harm anyone and it might just scare the patent trolls a little...

    1. Dazed and Confused

      Doesn't Apple sell more

      of the legacy products than the new ones?

      1. majorursa
        WTF?

        Re: Doesn't Apple sell more

        Even the latest iPhad is outdated when released already. Why would anyone buy an old model?

        1. bri
          Thumb Down

          Stop trolling man

          Samsung is still selling its S II in large quantities. Even older / lower spec phones have their buyers and this is true especially for those from well known manufacturers. Apple is no different (pun intended).

    2. knarf
      Facepalm

      eh...no it would encourage the patent trolls who could force products off the market because they had and idea they could never really develop or build.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Very few of the trolls are using SEP/FRAND patents to troll with.

    3. jai

      Well the iPad2 is still for sale from Apple. And the iPhone 4 & 4S.

      But presumable, only until the next iPhone and iPad models are released in a month or two. So Apple aren't really going to feel much pain if the ban goes ahead.

      Also, I thought I read previously that it's a ban on importing these items, not on selling the stock currently already within the US.

      But yes, if it helps to deter the ridiculous patent lawsuits, then it would seem like a good thing.

    4. Rukario

      Still, would this also ban second-hand sales?

      1. MissingSecurity
        Devil

        @ Second Hand Sales

        If its a ban on importing, than probably no.

        If its a ban on sales, possibily if its through those "buy your used phones" sites.

        If you're selling your old kit to your buddy, no.

        Also, I am not a laywer, and using the collective internet knowledge to form a biased, unfounded opinion. Cheers!

    5. BillG
      Big Brother

      How much did Apple contribute to the Obama campaign?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/apple-inc/6fba97b1038744ad8ab27d5fac99bfd7

  2. jai

    iPhone 4 3GS??

    is that the iPhone 4S with 3G?

    or the iPhone 3GS?

    1. Rukario
      Joke

      Re: iPhone 4 3GS??

      Or the 2GS?

  3. Dazed and Confused

    Come on

    this could be really funny.

    But its probably the only way to bring this war to the end. Only a sales ban will cause the warring parties to actually hold a meaningful dialog. Otherwise the children will continue to argue over, my making something slightly different bounce on a screen patent trump your antenna design patent and a I raise you one colouring something white patent... rubbish we've been seeing for the last few years.

    1. Slawek

      Re: Come on

      These are not children. This is Apple suing every major phone manufacturer and now getting something in return.

  4. knarf

    Maybe you should issue a Behave and Growup order instread

    If he does ban apple then ban Samsung this could start a global tit-4-tat banning war which is not good for anyone.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe you should issue a Behave and Growup order instread

      Have you actually been following the details of this whole fiasco?

      Apple has been repeatedly trying to get Samsung's products blocked, now Samsung is playing the same game.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Maybe you should issue a Behave and Growup order instread

        But a presidential intervention is a bit stronger though

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe you should issue a Behave and Growup order instread

      A global tit for tat war could actually benefit an awful lot of people. Things would cost more but employ more people to make. Startups would be easier. At some point rising oil costs are going to reverse globalisation anyway.

  5. bluefin333

    What did Mike Jacks do wrong?

    Oh! You mean mic jacks...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A winning plot

    Considering we are days from these same items being made obsolete anyway, I suspect this is done to make any coming protectionist Samsung ban appear fair play.

    The timing is so so suspect.

    1. Fatman

      Re: A winning plot

      The timing is so so suspect.

      No doubt we have a case of Money Talks, Bullshit Walks, and I smell (promises of) campaign contributions floating somewhere.

      I wold like to make a request of the global "radio station": Alicia Keys' Karma, served up on a silver platter.

  7. andreas koch
    Paris Hilton

    Wouldn't it be better

    to let someone who actually has some in-depth knowledge concerning technology and intellectual property decide such a thing? Mr. Obama appears to be a clever man, but he's a lawyer by profession and trying to run a rather substantial country; he surely must have better things to do than reading up on the details of silly squabbles between toymakers to make an informed decision.

    If he makes an uninformed decision, then it could just as well have been left to Paris.

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      Re: Wouldn't it be better

      The way it works is that the judgement will go forward unless Obama stops it. He is the only person with the authority to overrule the USITC judgements. Should he choose not to interfere it means that the knowledgeable people have already examined the issue and decided.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Wouldn't it be better

      >but he's a lawyer by profession

      No he's a politician by profession - which means he just has to decide whether Apple or Samsung contributed most to his campaign

      1. andreas koch
        Thumb Up

        @Yet Another Anonymous coward - Re: Wouldn't it be better

        I thought he had a degree in Law and not in Politics? Never mind, your argument is definitely valid anyway.

        Upvote!

      2. Fatman

        Re: Wouldn't it be better

        No he's a politician by profession - which means he just has to decide whether Apple or Samsung contributed most to his campaign the "correct" political party.

        FTFY!

      3. Suricou Raven

        Re: Wouldn't it be better

        Or conclude that Apple is an important US company, Samsung is an important South Korean company, and that the best interests of the country he is supposed to be leading would be best advanced by tilting the scales of justice a little.

        As president, his first loyalty is *supposed* to be to the US. Intervening would just be doing his job. Sure, it could be seen as an underhanded subversion of the legal process... but that's basically how the legal process works anyway.

  8. Homer 1
    Mushroom

    Too American to fail

    El Pres ban Apple's toys?

    That's about as likely as him banning other cultural American icons, such as hamburgers, racism and warfare.

    1. asdf

      Re: Too American to fail

      >banning other cultural American icons ... racism

      I will give you your fun on the other items but as Obama himself shows America has come a long way on the race front. When do you think you will see a darker skin person running somewhere like Australia (talk about a racist place) or even the UK?. Also as the Italians say about racism but applies to much of Europe “Eskimos who say they don’t mind the heat because they’ve never had to deal with it.” We have our problems but I will put up US society tolerance of race against virtually any European country. Europe has right wing xenophobic parties that make the Republicans look positively inclusive by comparison.

      1. A 11
        Thumb Down

        Re: Too American to fail

        I really hate these kind of comparisons between countries with radically different % of non-white citizens. The USA is 20-30% non-white and the UK and Australia are ~10% non-white (a large percentage of which are Asian so don't fit your 'darker skin' category), i.e. less than half as many (Italy is only ~4% non-white). Both of these countries have had women leaders (~ 50% of the population in all of these countries in case you hadn't noticed). It's disingenuous to not take account of these variations when comparing the US to other countries.

        I also think that's a rather unfair characterisation of Europe. The Republican party won 49% of the votes in the presidential election and controls the house, the parties you refer to only make it into government when their numbers are needed to sustain a coalition and frequently don't have ANY seats in parliament (e.g. UK). The US 2 party system may give them less political power but you have more than your share of radical right-wing groups (including as it happens Stormfront, the source of the first hits I got when trying to find the percentage of white people in Italy). The main stream right-wing parties in Europe are frequently to the left of the Democratic party (the right-wing conservatives in the UK just legalised Gay Marriage, Obama only just decided its ok).

        1. asdf

          Re: Too American to fail

          All I was trying to say most countries including the UK live in glass houses when it comes to throwing the racism rock. Almost all of Europe has plenty of shameful racism (colonialism anyone?) in its past and even today (such as in football matches). So the USA is not unique in this regard.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Too American to fail

            The school my brother's kids went to, in the DC commuter belt, was desegregated in 1974. The US has only really emerged from being a backward colony in the last 100 years. Many of the things that surprise Europeans about the USA are only really to be expected.

      2. Homer 1
        Headmaster

        Re: Too American to fail

        "America has come a long way..."

        I was referring more to Americans' constitutionally protected "right" to racism, than any specific demographic breakdown.

        1. asdf

          Re: Too American to fail

          >I was referring more to Americans' constitutionally protected "right" to racism

          Yes there was the whole 3/5 of a person for the census but as Anthony Hopkins (as John Quincy Adams) says in Amistad, "Give us the courage to do what is right. And if it means civil war? Then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution." We did get it right eventually.

          The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.*

          *And yes I know the ignorant right wing redneck Southerners for awhile were able to circumvent the law with the retarded separate but equal bullshit but as shown in the last election they always lose in the end.

    2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Too American to fail

      I see it as more a matter of Apple begging for a presidential pardon, mostly because that concept amuses me.

  9. Michael Habel

    I'm sure Mr. Osamba is to busy Hob-nobbling with all the other insignificant Leaders of the World to give a f***! That or, he might suddenly decide to do his job and actually work with Congress to get a Budget done.

  10. Crady

    If the ban is prevented then this could be seen by the industry that the US is very biased in favour of Apple regardless of them being infringing products. Just about every foreign company within the mobile industry affected by Apple past and present would most likely cry foul.

    1. Don Jefe

      The written justification for giving the US President veto power over USITC rulings is that he can favor US companies if he feels that allowing the decision to go forward cost US companies too much money, loses them too many jobs, gives a foreign company an advantage inside the US or any combination of those things.

      Foreign companies can cry foul all they want but there is no appeal process. The case would have to start over from the beginning with different justifications. By the time it was resolved, the products in question would no longer be relevant.

      Besides, there's not much those other companies can do about it. They aren't going to pull out of the US, they any afford to.

      1. Mephistro

        "Foreign companies can cry foul all they want but there is no appeal process"

        Not inside the USA, but the WTO may have something to say about this. Not the first time the USA has been fined for, basically, wiping their collective arse with the WTO agreements they signed.

        And if that fails, some sort of trade war would be the next step. If Obama 'bans the ban', it might cost the American Economy more than the ban itself.

        1. h3

          The USA just ignores the WTO. (Look at the situation with offshore gambling).

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Besides, there's not much those other companies can do about it."

        No, but there are organisations that can - just think how it would feel to be the most popular EU Commissioner in history with a response of seizing all the cash Apple's stashed away in Ireland? Just because they have done so legally (the stashing, I mean) doesn't make it right; and seizing it certainly wouldn't be right, but banning one company's product (Samsung) but not another (Apple) before -all- of their patent nonsense is sorted out is just plain silly.

        1. jonathanb Silver badge

          The problem is that Apple's cash isn't actually stashed away in Ireland, it is stashed away in Texas, but owned by an Irish company. Irish tax law says you pay tax if your activities take place in Ireland. Apple Operations International's activities take place in Texas, not Ireland, so it pays no Irish tax.

          US tax law says you pay tax if you are an American company, no matter where you are based in the world. Apple Operations International is an Irish company, so it pays no US tax.

  11. JohnMurray

    well..

    who really cares anyway, apart from Apple?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How much?

    I wonder what the going rate for presidential interference is this week.

  13. Havin_it

    The fix is in

    Oh well then.

    @Most of the commentards above, you want some ketchup with that hat?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It"s done.

    The verdict has been VETO'd. Must be the first time in what ? 25 years ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It"s done.

      http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/apple-inc/6fba97b1038744ad8ab27d5fac99bfd7

      $15m in lobbying, $500k in campaign contributions buys you a veto.

      What's the definition of an honest politician again?

      1. Velv
        Go

        Re: It"s done.

        That's a lot cheaper than the FRAND license Apple refuse to buy into, unlike all their competition who paid Samsung for the use of the patents.

        Now if the Obama's administration want to show what democracy and freedom are about, they'll also strike down any bans on Samsung (or others) that are about FRAND patent infringement.

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