Spanish Firm Wins Tablet Case Against Apple

pmontra writes "A Spanish company has won a legal case against Apple and will be able to sell an Android tablet that Apple had claimed infringes on the iPad patent. It is now seeking damages from Apple for a temporary seizure of its products by Spanish customs. Furthermore they are pursuing an antitrust complaint against Apple, alleging abusive anticompetitive behavior."

All I can say is

[Rexdude]

Excellent!.

Re:All I can say is

[siddesu]

And all I can add is:

• there should be stiff penalties for frivolous lawsuits and
• here's one more piece of solid proof that "IP" is mostly used to stiffle competition and innovation, not to promote it.

Live by the sword, die by the sword

[SuperKendall]

We can only hope a few more judgements like these get the whole industry to settle down and allow a little more leeway in advancing tablet design.

If lots of smaller companies like this start fighting back now that they see they can win, the cost of legal action all over the globe will hopefully make so little financial sense Apple will stop suing others, and with them desisting the other companies can back away too.

Re:All I can say is

[Anonymous Coward]

"Steve's dead, we're fucked. Better double the staff in the legal department to protect our position while we figure out what the hell we're gunna do."

Pro-tip: Read the retraction before posting...

[IrrepressibleMonkey]

The third article has an update stating that Apple didn't litigate this case, but MAY have been behind the original complaint. Surely we need something a bit more substantial than this before we break out the standard pro/anti-Apple rhetoric?

Re:Live by the sword, die by the sword

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is that their fans throw money at them like toilet paper. $900 for a dual core 16GB 800MHz phone would be laughed at if anyone else tried to sell it. Some would complain about entering a monopoly / being overcharged for anything else, but not them.

There's a lot of money to go through before they stop -- especially considering they've delayed the competition successfully already.

Code ownership

[andydread]

Apple's attempt to own the code that other developers write has failed in this case. They will continue their mission though. They are using software-patents to take ownership of other people's code. It a horrible horrible development in the software industry. Filing patents on applications and gestures just so they can claim ownership over code that they did not write. This egregious behavior on the part of Apple is really showing their true colors. Apple followed by Microsoft and Oracle are the most anti-competitive companies in the software industry and people who are aware of this egregious behavior on the part of Apple and still go out and purchase their products are simply willfully supporting this kind of abuse and litigious practice in the software marketplace and are willfully helping Apple to destroy the software marketplace by removing consumer choice with these despicable practices.

Re:About time ...

[slydder]

I don't have a problem with the fact that Apple defends its IP.

I do have a problem with HOW they defend their IP.

Do misunderstand me here. I am NOT an Apple fan. I have a lot of friends that love their iThings and I am happy for them. That said, I wouldn't let them use my computer either. It's a good thing the iThings are available for those not Technically savvy.

But I do want the option to be able to purchase something that is NOT an iThing and also has the ability to allow me to do what "I" want to do, however I want to do it.

Whether patents are good or not is a non-issue. Of course they are good. As long as they are based on common sense. And as the entire world can see this is NOT the case and thus needs to be addressed.

Also think 1 second (if you can) what the mobile phone / smartphone sector looked like BEFORE the iPhone and AFTER the iPhone.

And when did the E70 come out? hmmm. the E75? don't know about you but the only thing that the iphone brought with it was marketing.

Re:Live by the sword, die by the sword

[AmiMoJo]

Unfortunately Apple has almost unlimited cash reserves and the stakes are very high, so I doubt they will relent. If they can kill or cripple all competing products it will have huge financial ramifications for years, and not just for tablets by all future devices they can patent. Pumping a few hundred million into open warfare via the courts is easily justifiable.

The best solution would be for the EU to revise patent law to prevent its abuse. For that to happen some big EU companies will have to be attacked with clearly ridiculous patents, e.g. Airbus falling foul of a Boeing patent on "cylindrical flying machine with forward facing observation glass" or being forced to replace "rounded rectangular rubber rolling devices" with sled skis.

Re:Code ownership

[JAlexoi]

You do realise that in this case the claims were not grounded in software anything?

This again?

[Daetrin]

Also think 1 second (if you can) what the mobile phone / smartphone sector looked like BEFORE the iPhone and AFTER the iPhone.

Let's see, before the iPhone it looked like the LG Prada [wikipedia.org] and after the iPhone it looked like the LG Prada, but selling about three times as much and getting a hell of a lot more publicity for it?

I admit that Apple's ability to copy what other companies have done before them, polish it up and market it in a highly successful way is truly amazing. But being the most popular doesn't give you some kind of magical patent rights, despite what a lot of courts seem to think these days.