Thursday, July 19, 2012

Apple : HTC has filed a new patent suit against Apple

Apple : HTC has filed a new patent suit against Apple

HTC has filed a new patent suit against Apple

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HTC has filed a new patent suit against Apple

The tech industry has been plagued with patent suits for years, and now Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is adding yet one more to the seemingly never-ending list.

The company filed suit against Apple in a district court in Florida for alleged patent infringement.

HTC reportedly refused to elaborate since the case has already entered the formal litigation stage.

But HTC claimed in a statement to a Taipei newspaper that Apple's MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iPhone infringe on two patents concerning networks that HTC acquired from Hewlett-Packard last year.

The never-ending patent parade

It seems surreal at this point that any company can raise a new patent suit without realizing the apparent futility of such measures in gaining an edge in a consumer-oriented marketplace.

Nevertheless, tech companies continue to sue one another as if the courts and judges work for them and them alone.

Just two weeks ago the High Court in Britain ruled in favor of HTC in a suit Apple had brought to bear, ruling that three of the four patents raised by Apple in the case are invalid, and the fourth was not infringed by HTC.

But it seems HTC just loves to litigate, despite knowing firsthand how pointless such measures can prove.

Maybe their lawyers just needed something to do.

Apple is also embroiled in heated patent suits with Samsung (one of which they just lost), Motorola Mobility (a case that's been thrown out of court twice), probably every Android phone maker in existence, and NoiseFree, who recently sued Apple for alleged patent infringement, breach of contract and theft of trade secrets.

Apple and Samsung's roughly 30 cases against one another continue to rage in 10 separate countries, wasting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on what can only be seen as frivolous attempts to prevent the competition from pulling ahead.

A ban on Motorola devices won by Microsoft in another similar suit was ignored just yesterday, as the smartphone maker said it has no plans to stop selling the infringing Android phones.

And Nokia took RIM, the makers of Blackberry, to court earlier this month for another three alleged patent violations.

Even gaming consoles aren't immune to the insanity, with Microsoft only recently granted a reprieve in a case that could see the Xbox 360 banned from sale in the U.S.

Whether any of these companies will gain anything from these myriad suits besides legal bills the size of phone books is up to the courts.

Apple must advertise Samsung didn't copy iPad, orders UK judge

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Apple must advertise Samsung didn't copy iPad, orders UK judge

Reports of uncontrollable laughter from Samsung's UK HQ remain unconfirmed following a court ruling ordering Apple to publicly advertise that the Galaxy Tab did not copy the iPad.

Judge Colin Birss said today that Apple must place a notice on its own UK website for six months and advertise in UK online and print media explaining that Samsung did not infringe on its patents.

The order follows a July 9 ruling that absolved Samsung (at least in the UK) of Apple's allegations that it 'blatantly copied' the Apple iPad with its own range of Android-powered tablets.

The advertisements, which will cause red faces at Cupertino, must be worded so as to repair any damage done to Samsung's reputation as a result of the allegations, Birss said.

Throwing up a doozy.

Apple must now publish advertisements in the Daily Mail, Guardian Mobile magazine, Financial Times and, interestingly, our sister publication T3.

Apple has been granted permission to argue the July 9 verdict, while a Samsung motion to prevent Apple saying it copied the iPad was rejected by the judge, who said Apple was entitled to its opinion.

Most of the time these incessant global patent wars are about as exciting as watching paint dry, but occasionally they throw up a real doozy.

Last week the same judge said the Galaxy Tab wasn't "as cool as the iPad" so this order is a nice little kidney punch for the Samsung camp.

We can imagine those ads will be framed in its offices around the globe.

Photos of first iPad prototype revealed

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Photos of first iPad prototype revealed

It looks like the endless cycle of lawsuits between tech firms is finally good for something after all, as photos of the first iPad prototype were revealed in court documents that were recently made public.

As part of the ongoing case between Apple and Samsung, Apple's senior VP of industrial design, Jonathan Ive, gave a deposition last December. The full transcript was sealed, but a portion of it recently resurfaced in the case as public record.

The photos date back as early as 2002, revealing 035, an early mockup prototype of the device that would much later become the iPad.

"My recollection of first seeing it is very hazy, but it was, I'm guessing, sometime between 2002 and 2004, some but it was I remember seeing this and perhaps models similar to this when we were first exploring tablet designs that ultimately became the iPad," Ive's testimony said.

Digging into iPad's past

Even in its early form, the 035 mockup looks very much like a jumbo-sized iPad. It is outright fat by today's tablet standards, but for its time the 035 mockup is rather slim, seemingly about the same thickness as the original iPod.

Unlike the tablet it would become, the 035 mockup is all screen. The signature iDevice home button hadn't made its appearance yet nor even a power switch and volume control. There is a headphone jack though, along with the iPod charging port.

Though the 035 mockup was not quite ready for prime time, it inspired a shrunken version that later released as the iPhone in 2007. Apple then revisited the device's tablet roots to finally launch the iPad in 2010, eight years after its first prototype was built.
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