Apple has begun legal proceedings against HTC, alleging the Taiwanese phone manufacturer has used iPhone technology without its say-so. The Mac maker claimed HTC has infringed almost two dozen of its patents, all touching on the iPhone's UI, underlying software architecture and the hardware design. Apple filed a complaint …

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Tuesday 2nd March 2010 16:19 GMT paulf

Is it me?

Seems to be a lot of patent litigation being kicked off at the moment, especially in the mobile space. Nokia, Kodak, HTC, Apple et al.

Is this a sign that competition is fierce and thus patent holders are having to defend their hard won turf by being more rigorous in pursuing violators? Or that they need to get more revenue to shore up recession hit cash flows with some more patent licensing revenue/compensation?

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1. Tuesday 2nd March 2010 17:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Cashflow
  
  You may be right about the other companies shoring up recession hit cash flows, but wasn't it announced recently that Apple are sitting on boatload of cash?
  
  *googles*
  
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/26/jobs_cash/
  
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  1. Tuesday 2nd March 2010 17:47 GMT paulf
    
    Apple cash pile
    
    Yes, you're right about Apple and the massive pile of cash, and yes my thoughts were more about the others than Apple Re: enhancing cash flows. I suppose for Steve J its more the competition restricting/crushing that appeals, but what harm can a few more billion do for his ambitions if as a consequence of the litigation he can extract that from anyone found violating his^H^H^H Apple's patents? Apple may have a pile of cash $40 bn big, but if Steve J thought that was "enough" he wouldn't have told the shareholders he'll be hanging onto it in its entirety for now thank you very much.
    
    Wow $40Bn - now I'd drink to that! :)
    
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Tuesday 2nd March 2010 16:19 GMT Anonymous Coward

naughty HTC

I wonder what answer HTC will publish.

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Tuesday 2nd March 2010 17:00 GMT Len Goddard

Too many patents

I think at least part of the problem is the generally poor level of many of the patents. I don't know which patents are involved in this case, but in general there seem to be a lot of cases over patents for the blindingly obvious or for things which have been in use for many years (particularly in the UI field).

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Tuesday 2nd March 2010 20:06 GMT Seb123

Scary stuff

The '599 Patent, entitled "Object-Oriented Graphic System," was duly and legally issued on October 3, 1995 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the '599 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit I.

The '354 Patent, entitled "Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods," was duly and legally issued on July 23, 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the '354 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit J.

These two patents mean that Apple basically own the rights to almost every Graphic User interface system in use today. Unbelievable. Who allows these things? I was under the impression that software cannot be patented? I don't understand

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Tuesday 2nd March 2010 22:30 GMT Anonymous Coward

Ridiculous

Ridiculous. The iPhone came with technology developed by others, and now Apple is suing? This can only work because they know their way around the local lawyers better!

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Wednesday 3rd March 2010 11:43 GMT Olivier 2

Going through the motions of modern commercial warfare

It's not about who is right or wrong, patent litigation is one of the weapon in the arsenal of tech firms to make competitor's life harder. But in the long run this one will be as successful as whatever has been attempted in the past against Microsoft....

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Wednesday 3rd March 2010 16:41 GMT Greg D

patent system in a mess = this

yeh this was bound to happen.

you let anyone patent an obscure piece of 'tech' or software, who isnt even the original inventor of said tech, and this is what you get.

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