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Apple files request to block gnex sales

In a lawsuit filed last week in San Jose, Apple said the Galaxy Nexus infringes on patents underlying features customers expect from Apple products. Those include the ability to unlock phones by sliding an image and to search for information by voice.

I swear i could do those same things since getting my OG Droid two years ago...I'll never understand these legal battle in terms of what's legitimate and what's frivolous in the court's eyes.
 
I know a lot of phone companies do this. But I only hear about apple and this just adds coal to my fire for my hatred of them. Lol apple fan boys annoy the hell outta me and now the corporation. Like you guys said. These things have been able to be done on previous droids. What next? Android stole ICS from apple? They were going to start using it haha. Or maybe Samsung stole the idea to put a camera on the phone? Lol

Sorry for the rant.
 
I loved the one from a little while ago where they tried to block something (the Inc maybe?) for needing a swipe gesture to unlock the phone. Who gave them this patent? Next Apple will sue the world because they hold a patent on using you hands to dial phone numbers.

Apple was an innovator. They're part of the reason we even have a GNex. But they have been passed up. Instead of innovating, they're trying to catch up by slowing the leader down.
 
Does it make anyone else laugh that Apple files lawsuits for violation of things like "swipe to unlock" whereas companies like Motorola file lawsuits for "a method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access signal."

Just goes to show who is a technology company and who is a design company...
 
Does it make anyone else laugh that Apple files lawsuits for violation of things like "swipe to unlock" whereas companies like Motorola file lawsuits for "a method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access signal."

Just goes to show who is a technology company and who is a design company...

Yet whIch one is in financial trouble before being bailed out by Google? Which one phone sales have slowed to a crawl?
 
I loved the one from a little while ago where they tried to block something (the Inc maybe?) for needing a swipe gesture to unlock the phone. Who gave them this patent? Next Apple will sue the world because they hold a patent on using you hands to dial phone numbers.

Apple was an innovator. They're part of the reason we even have a GNex. But they have been passed up. Instead of innovating, they're trying to catch up by slowing the leader down.

The useless uspto gave it to them. People have patented toast and a snowman, just to prove how useless they are.
 
Samsung sues apple for emoticons. Equally frivolous? I don't see anyone mentioning that.

Sure, it's equally frivolous.

Yet whIch one is in financial trouble before being bailed out by Google? Which one phone sales have slowed to a crawl?

What's your point? I honestly don't understand what that has to do with what I said.

I'm pointing out the fundamental differences between the two companies. I have no problem with Apple being primarily a design and marketing firm. If all companies were like Apple, nothing would get invented. If all companies were like Motorola, nothing would get sold. Technology doesn't sell on its merits alone, but empty technology doesn't sell either - both sides need to exist.

Really, the only problem I have with Apple is their out-of-control litigious approach to competition. Abuse of a broken patent system shouldn't be how companies compete.
 
But if Apple stamps out Android now, where will they get their ideas for new features in iOS 6? ;)

iOS 5 clearly shows that their focus has shifted from in-house innovation to acquisition/refinement of outside innovation and litigation to protect it (ie copying some of Android's open source features, refining them, re-selling them, and buying Siri).
 
So, you have a problem with Samsung too, right?? Everybody is suing everybody because the competition is tight in tech world. That's my point. Apple is not the only one suing. Apple gets the most press because they are number one right now...just like you hear about Toyota's brake issues yet nothing about Ford's identical problem.

Like what I wrote in the past, these companies don't waste money on lawyers unless there is a point.
 
iOS 5 clearly shows that their focus has shifted from in-house innovation to acquisition/refinement of outside innovation and litigation to protect it (ie copying some of Android's open source features, refining them, re-selling them, and buying Siri).

Strange how iOS5 notification screen is such a big deal (for criticism of Apple) for Android fanboys...YET, Apple has not had one single lawsuit (that i know of) from Android/Google. Strange, isn't it??

Let me guess, you guys are going to say that Google is pure goodness, right?

You mean Google bought Motorola because they want to give something back to the world????? Hmm, OR is it to protect themselves with Moto's patents? OR is it to acquire some of Moto's innovation? Or is it to eliminate a source of competition to their products?

What is Google doing these days?? Copying Facebook, Yelp, etc.? Eliminating the competition with their own copycat?? It is like Starbucks all over again! Do no evil? Yeah, OK!

So, it is perfectly OK for Google (and other Android folks) to acquire/copy, but Apple should burn in hell for doing the same?! I don't get the logic of some of you. Why don't you guys step back and look objectively instead of thru the Galaxy Nexus screen!

Lets not forget, ICS has some stuff in it that is a copycat of iOS too. The copycat game goes both ways. For those who think that ICS is free of copycat, i have a piece of land on Pluto for sale! :D

Everyone is suing everyone:
http://www5.pcmag.com/media/images/331808-smartphone-patent-suits.jpg?thumb=y
 
Basically the status quo for large tech companies for almost 20 years was that each company would stockpile patents and ideas, and everyone copied everyone else but no one sued eachother because everyone would loose... it would be MAD (mutually assured destruction)- it was a sort of cold war. Except Steve Jobs did not like to play this game, he was really personally upset and hurt that android was competing with them (whether or not they were copying doesn't matter... all that matters is that Steve felt he was being stolen from, and decided who cared if it meant global meltdown and genocide, he would show them). So now we are in full nuclear war, all companies suing each other... all the droid companies forming up and suing apple, and apple is the big boy here, but fighting on many fronts. The winner? M$- they have decided to appropriately license their patents and are making bank on everything, even on every apple product sold. They went with normal license fees that the companies are willing to pay. If apple and all the android alliance companies would do the same we would have a peaceful prosperity that would improve technology and innovation for all... instead we have war...

War is hell...
 
Strange how iOS5 notification screen is such a big deal (for criticism of Apple) for Android fanboys...YET, Apple has not had one single lawsuit (that i know of) from Android/Google. Strange, isn't it??

Let me guess, you guys are going to say that Google is pure goodness, right?


So, it is perfectly OK for Google (and other Android folks) to acquire/copy, but Apple should burn in hell for doing the same?! I don't get the logic of some of you. Why don't you guys step back and look objectively instead of thru the Galaxy Nexus screen!

Lets not forget, ICS has some stuff in it that is a copycat of iOS too. The copycat game goes both ways. For those who think that ICS is free of copycat, i have a piece of land on Pluto for sale! :D
In terms of objectivity, one must remember that most of Android is Open Source- in the public domain- and so will not be used as a basis for lawsuits for monetary gain. It is not entirely a two-way street. To understand the differences one should read up on what Android actually is, instead of assuming that it is the same creature as a fully proprietary OS like iOS. Starts here:
Open Handset Alliance

And from the Android FAQ on that site:
If the Open Handset Alliance is giving it all away for free, how will the platform be differentiated?
Because the Apache license does not have a copyleft clause, industry players can add proprietary functionality to their products based on Android without needing to contribute anything back to the platform. As the entire platform is open, companies can remove functionality if they choose. Applications are not set in stone, and differentiation is always possible. For example, if you want to include Hotmail instead of Gmail, it will not be an issue.

Apple selectively uses thing put out there into the public domain (which is fine, that's what it is there for, to drive the industry forward) that keeps them safe, so my jest wasn't at Apple stealing things so much as Apple has taken to using Android as a market barometer to gauge what products they need to find/acquire/maybe develop to stay competitive.

The reason why Apple is so unnecessarily aggressively litigious is something called "pre-emption." Think about it from their standpoint, what would they have to lose? They are picking fights with a patent-weak (by nature/design, remember that Android doesn't have full copyleft protection because of the interplay with Apache's license and the issues with Sun/Oracle) system, which is already in competition with them (theoretically causing them damages). If they litigate and lose, the competition is still against them as before (no change), but if they litigate and win (even temporary injunctions) they get a (practically) free meal ticket for a while. By bringing suit, you can't have your products banned because that isn't this particular case- and while yes you might open yourself up to be counter-sued, your deep pockets are pretty big intimidators against this. Not to mention that those same groups you are suing can only counter-sue on their own proprietary aspects, not Android as a whole (probably the real reason why Manufacturer's custom skins will never completely go away), which many will notice Apple stays away from using.

You mean Google bought Motorola because they want to give something back to the world????? Hmm, OR is it to protect themselves with Moto's patents? OR is it to acquire some of Moto's innovation? Or is it to eliminate a source of competition to their products?

What is Google doing these days?? Copying Facebook, Yelp, etc.? Eliminating the competition with their own copycat?? It is like Starbucks all over again! Do no evil? Yeah, OK!
Moto and Google were never in competition, and in fact have been nothing but partners. And it seems that the acquisition was indeed because of patents, and it is sad that Google has had to resort to such measures to protect itself from bullying. (Remember, Android is not trying to shut down iOS- Google develops too many iOS apps and makes too much money off of iOS searches for that to be true- but Apple sure is trying to shut down Android, so yes it is mostly one-sided)

As to Facebook and yelp and such, Google is doing the same thing they have always done (with search, browsing, cloud connectivity, etc.) they are providing more dynamic and feature-rich options that are meant to out-perform and drive the market to respond but getting more innovative and competitive. The difference here is that Apple is NOT responding by being more innovative and competitive (like Facebook), they are simply suing and trying to snuff competition out.
Don't get me wrong, Google makes (a lot of) money doing this, but I would argue we have a better internet because of Google search, better functionality because of Gmail, Google Maps, Documents, Calendar etc., and not simply because those apps exist, but rather they have pushed Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, etc. to improve their own products to compete.
 
So, you have a problem with Samsung too, right?? Everybody is suing everybody because the competition is tight in tech world. That's my point. Apple is not the only one suing. Apple gets the most press because they are number one right now...just like you hear about Toyota's brake issues yet nothing about Ford's identical problem.

Apple has repeatedly instigated these lawsuits. Just because Samsung is suing Apple, doesn't mean that they would have if Apple hadn't gone after them. Most patent litigation is never settled in court: the lawsuits mount and eventually the companies involved end up cross-licensing everything or paying settlement fees once it's clear that the lawsuits are simply mutually assured destruction.

You can't possibly be claiming that Apple is not a particularly litigious company, can you?

Apple sued HTC. They sued Samsung. They sued Motorola. All three of these were the instigating lawsuit in what ended up being an escalating patent war.

So, it is perfectly OK for Google (and other Android folks) to acquire/copy, but Apple should burn in hell for doing the same?! I don't get the logic of some of you.

You're missing the point when that is brought up. People aren't saying Apple should burn for copying (at least, reasonable people aren't). The point is that Apple rabidly pursues legal action against companies that it claims are copying its design cues, yet seems to be content to copy others' design ideas.


I know you posted that to prove a point about many companies being involved in lawsuits. In the end, though, you're really proving my point. Apple, according to that chart, is involved in 14 patent lawsuits. 4 of them as a plaintiff. All four of them were instigated PRIOR to the other party suing in retaliation. HTC, Nokia and Samsung are all involved in a single lawsuit as plaintiffs - a retaliatory lawsuit against Apple. Motorola is involved in a whopping ONE lawsuit as a plaintiff that's not retaliatory.

Look, Apple isn't evil. But this is an aggressive way of doing business that, in my opinion, is relying heavily on a fundamentally flawed patent system. It's not that this can't be effective, it's that the system is broken and I don't like that a company is trying to substantially compete in a market through litigation.
 
I think the main issue with Apple's lawsuits for me is they are trying to prevent competition. They don't settle, and they don't license their patents. Microsoft is taking the opposite approach, settling, and turning their patent law department into a huge profit center, where Apple's is a hit on their bottom line. If they were massively successful, maybe I could buy their tactics, but they lose far more than they win. They have successfully banned what, one major product (The Galaxy Tab 10.1), and even then only in limited areas. Meanwhile all this capital is being expended on lawyers, when they could be spending it on innovation instead. I am not saying Apple doesn't have cause in some of these cases, but they could settle, get a revenue stream from their competition, and use that to improve their innovation departments to stay ahead of the competition.
 
And if they crush Facebook with their own copycat, then people will use their copycat...thus creating more money for them. Different approach, same difference.
 
And if they crush Facebook with their own copycat, then people will use their copycat...thus creating more money for them. Different approach, same difference.
Yup, it's win win for them. Same with the iOS-Android battle. Google will win even Apple were granted an injunction against all Android products tomorrow. How long would Apple survive if the iOS suite were wiped off the table? Macs are having increasing issues with each new OS X release, and while they still have a large base, most of Apple's revenue is iOS/iTunes/App Store...

The Galaxy Nexus is a cog to Google (as is any Android device), but iOS is Apple's crutch.

Back to the topic, I don't see how Apple can possibly win this particular legal set piece (I think this lawsuit is a "test" or distraction for something else in play or about to be in play), because they are suing Samsung over something that is not Samsung's developmental property (ie responsibility). Plus, given a relative sales comparison, I do not see where Apple has legal standing for this single device. Because of the nature of the features Apple is suing over, it is equivalent to Xerox suing HP because of the direction the paper is fed into the printer. Apple's actions here are puzzling, the more I think about it actually, because sure they don't really have anything to lose, but are also extremely unlikely to gain anything. It's as if this suit is "just because"
 
Jeez, guys, you know - I totally get the difficulty in moderating and determining what goes where. But a thread can take a natural course of discussion. It started with a directly-Nexus-related topic.

Threads are going to progress between related subjects. If we spent another 30 posts talking about garage door openers, okay, I'd say it's definitely a Lounge thread. In this case, though, we're talking about subjects related to the Nexus lawsuit. They may not be on that specific lawsuit, but they are around it.

Just my $0.02. Half the threads in any forum would have to get moved to the Lounge if a rabid policy of only discussion around the topical device were allowed.
 
Here is a good look at the suit: Apple's latest patent suit against Samsung seen as its strongest case yet

An interesting comment:

"Regardless, Abramsky believes that Apple will "continue its barrage of patent litigation," and may use feedback from the court to file even stronger motions for preliminary injunctions against Android devices in the future."

If true, then this kinda explains what Apple has been doing. Basically, the early suits were to test the water and get feedback. The big and major suits are coming soon.

The above suit and this one (http://www.appleinsider.com/article...nt_in_apples_favor_in_htc_android_appeal.html) will be interesting to watch.
 
lol @ the apple hangers on jumping in to defend their beloved company (in the android forum no less) whenever they get called on something frivolous. no need to compare and contrast, just stick to the topic at hand. apple owners must be the most sensitive group of any smartphone user.
 
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