Apple Wins Injunction Banning Import of HTC Devices 314
Newly accepted submitter squish18 writes "All Things D reports that Apple has won an injunction banning the import of some HTC phones starting in April 2012. The ruling by the ITC stems from two claims of the '647 patent concerning software used to enter personal data in mobile devices. It is interesting to note that the ITC has also reversed previous rulings regarding regarding infringement of two other '647 claims, as well as patent '263 claims."
It looks like Apple's victory is relatively minor. They lost claims on all patents except for one, and HTC/Google can work on implementing similar functionality in a non-infringing way.
2012 Elections - Any Hope? (Score:5, Funny)
Can we elect people who will terminate software patents, please?
Fuck Apple (Score:2, Funny)
or does Apple have that patented too.
Re:Evil Monopoly (Score:5, Funny)
eh? eh?
Re:Evil Monopoly (Score:5, Funny)
Clay tablets had sharp, point corners. That was the only anti-piracy they had back then- you'd poke the thieves with the pointy corners saying "Bad Sumerian IP thief!"
Re:Evil Monopoly (Score:3, Funny)
Sure, companies are choosing to act the way they are, but the current patent system is incentivizing this behavior. The question should be whether there is a system with better incentives, not whether companies should stop doing what they are doing, because some companies will behave responsibly, but others invariably won't and you have to expect that behavior.
I'm not convinced any companies, even patent trolls, are truly acting irresponsibly. It's impossible to know if a patent is/isn't valid without going to court. And it's impossible to know if a patent is/isn't being infringed without going to court.
This leads to disagreements between patent holders and potential licensors about just how much should be paid in any licensing agreement, or whether any licensing fees should even be paid at all. To make matters worse, the courts are making stupid decisions all the time.
In my mind, this is a clear situation where we need to blame whoever wrote patent law in the first place for failing to predict the mess they created. And blame more recent government(s) for failing to do anything about it.
But how to solve it? That's the trillion dollar question.
If I figure it out, I'm patenting it!