Apple Sued Over OS X Quick Boot 196
An anonymous reader writes "With a patent originally owned by LG in tow, a Florida based company called Operating Systems Solutions LLC recently filed suit against Apple claiming that OS X's use of quick booting infringes the aforementioned patent."
The company in question is a bit suspicious — having formed very recently — and so others are speculating it was created for a proxy battle against Apple by LG.
Prior art? (Score:4, Insightful)
There have been many implementations of this any many variations since at least the early 90's. I don't know when the patent was lodged but I think Apple themselves may have prior art on this.
Patents and patent trolls should become illegal in our current economic environment.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:These patent lawsuits are getting out of hand. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:These patent lawsuits are getting out of hand. (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple single-handedly made tablets and smartphones into the products you recognize today. Before Apple, we had products like this [mobileguerilla.com] and this [tradenote.net]. Suddenly, post-iPhone, we have this [slashgear.com] and this [blogcdn.com].
I'm no fan of patents, but this is the exact sort of innovation the patent system was designed to protect in the first place. Regardless of the particular patents Apple has chosen to fight with in these battles, can't reasonable people agree that Apple ought to have some protection on their R&D investments?
Re:LG sells Android phones... connection? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I think that if random /. posters are coming up with that 5 minutes after reading the summary, LG wouldn't be stupid enough to think that no one at Apple - who has a vested interest in these things - would ever come to that conclusion. I mean, seriously. That doesn't take any insight.
It's seems unlikely that LG is the puppeteer. As - AFAIK - they're not involved in any of the Apple/Android/mobile patent wars with Apple, it would be pretty stupid for them to instigate a fight. After all, they sold off a parent that this new company claims has significant value. If that's the case, why would LG sell it? Why not pursue Apple themselves? The only reason would seem to be legal insulation from the lawsuit if they think the claim is tenuous and they're just trying to ruffle Apple's feathers. But if they're not involved in the patent fight, why would they provoke Apple and risk their current business with Apple?
In short: no, it seems too transparent and too stupid (stupid at least with the information I'm aware of; maybe an Apple suit against LG is imminent or something).
Re:These patent lawsuits are getting out of hand. (Score:4, Insightful)
...filed under category "self-serving exaggeration"
True, but it's not exaggerated by much.
Yes, other companies had the technology to make iPad/iPhone style products before Apple did theirs. It's telling, however, that none of them actually came out with such a product until after they had seen the iPhone/iPad's example. Until then, the tablet companies all thought that simply installing Windows on a tablet PC was sufficient, and all the smartphone companies.... well, the less said about them, the better.
Re:These patent lawsuits are getting out of hand. (Score:4, Insightful)
Some protection? Definitely. 20 years of protection? Hell no. That's an eternity in the software biz, and would absolutely stifle innovation (which is antithetical to the purpose of patents.)
Re:These patent lawsuits are getting out of hand. (Score:2, Insightful)
The LG Prada was announced December 12, 2006 and came out May 2007. Apple showed the iPhone January 9th 2007 and released it June 29th 2007.
To go from seeing the Prada in December to a workable prototype iPhone in less than a month would be very difficult. Apparently the Prada did win an award in Sept. 2006, but even if someone from Apple saw it then, that's still a huge leap to think Apple could design the iPhone and write iOS up enough to show it in Jan 2007.
Re:These patent lawsuits are getting out of hand. (Score:5, Insightful)
Taste of their own medicine? I take it you completely forgot about Nokia suing them, and Kodak before that? Or how about the company that sued them on the basis of the iPod's playlist?
To say that "Apple started it!" is extremely childish and naive.
But in the case of HTC and Samsung, Apple most certainly started it. It's like an elementary school. Some 6th grader beats up on a 4th grader, so he goes and picks on the 2nd graders. The 4th grader in question is no less a bully simply because he was bullied himself.
When Apple counter-sued Nokia, that was just perfectly reasonable self-defense. Nokia was the bad guy there. When they sued HTC with a collection of completely bogus patents simply because HTC had fewer patents for self-defense, Apple was being evil.
In the past few years we've seen some of the bigger and better-known names in tech resort to patent trolling simply because they find themselves falling behind their competitors due to a failure to innovate. Nokia, Microsoft and TiVo are all guilty. Apple, however, is about the only big name to start patent trolling before they hit their decline. They're doing it while on top. In that particular way, Apple's patent lawsuits are unique in the industry.
So while they certainly did not start the patent wars, they have definitely distinguished themselves with their misbehavior as of late and they undeniably did start the fights between HTC and Samsung.