HTC Looking to Strike Deal, Google and Apple Likely to Drive Up Price of Patent Acquisitions

I know this is important to the industry, but is anyone else sick and tired of this patent BS?

This will set a precedence. Next: Samsung,Motorola,ZTE, Acer,etc.


Seriously, this guys cant even do a good job at copying Apple.

Have you read that article or just the headline? Because there's no factual evidence or cited sources in the article.

Or those that have patents would actually like to protect the integrity of their product(s) for which they apply.

If it isn't an iPhone .... it isn't an iPhone.

Can't blame them for trying to protect the things that make the iPhone and their other products unique.

Of course the patents in question don't have anything to do with the iPhone. Not that facts will change your mind.

So take a second or third or fourth look (however many it takes) at what you posted and revise accordingly.

You should be inclined to head your own advice.

The market rewards innovation. Apple has seen its sale go through the roof because of it. Patents exist and do protect truly innovative products, but most are highly derivative and makes patent portfolios an offensive weapon against another's products rather than a defensive weapon to protect one's products.

The market rewards innovation -- not the people who innovate. Think of it this way. Who makes more in a company: the person who invents the product or the person who sells it? It doesn't take long to find stories of someone who came up with something innovative without protecting it only to be out-maneuvered and out-spent by another company who essentially got the innovation for free.

What good is it for a company to innovate to have another company profit off of it? Good for the market, bad for the company.

Apple recently won a very broad multitouch patent plus the Nortel stuff.

That "very broad multitouch patent" is not at all what you think. In real life, so far it has only been applied to using two fingers to scroll a subregion on a web page. It wouldn't be a surprise if Motorola adds that to the list of Apple patents they're trying to get overturned.

I don't think anyone here knows much about the Nortel patents. Rumor says they mostly apply to LTE Advanced.

Has Apple sued for anything they haven't implemented? Has Apple attempted to prevent anyone from making "trolley's" (or smartphones)? None of Apple's patents are fundamental to creating a smartphone. You are exaggerating the issues and projecting them on to Apple even though the specifics do no support your claims.

Apple is constantly applying for (and sometimes getting) some pretty simple and obvious patents that can affect everyone's experience, if withheld from other devices.

The latest one about using different numbers of fingers to scroll areas is a good example. The whole point of multitouch is to allow different numbers of fingers to mean different things. For instance, Google uses two fingers to move in 3D in their Maps program. The idea of using two fingers to scroll a subarea would be one obvious solution to anyone with the need.

Another patent they're trying to get includes using two fingers to simulate a knob turn. Give me a break. The reason others don't apply for such patents is because they are so obvious to anyone skilled in the trade.

Non-method, gesture-only patents like the two above should not be granted... especially since the end result will be to make it harder for users to learn a standardized gesture vocabulary.

If not for the ability to lock people out of using an invention for a limited period of time (i.e. what a patent gives you), there would be no incentive to research things to come up with something new - ..

Of course there's incentive; software developers research and invent new interface functionality all the time without a thought to stopping anyone else from doing the same. The reason is, software especially relies on learning from and copying others.

If you're tired of them, why enter this thread and post then?

To express my opinion that I'm tired of patent related stories being on page 1 on this site.

Tony

Settlement is the best option. These patent disputes stifle marketplace competition, and ultimately, innovation. We as the consumers are the ones that ultimately suffer.

Apple has a lot of money, i just hope they don't use it all up on buying all the patents in the world

They aren't that stupid. Besides governments won't let them. Apple will make a play for these, most likely, in another consortium. Maybe even with the same partners as with the Nortel acquisition.