Via Files Suit Against Apple

crookedvulture writes "Add chipmaker Via to the list of companies filing legal suit against Apple. Via owns a number of fundamental technology patents inherited from Centaur, and it's already forced Intel to grant an ongoing x86 license. Via also has a vested interest; CEO Wenchi Chen is married to the head of HTC, which Apple sued for patent infringement last March."

In this case

[Sycraft-fu]

It was Apple's mouth writing checks their ass can't cash. Apple is real worried: Android is a real threat to them. Their iDevice market is where their big profits are, they don't have a "what's next" lined up right now and Android is encroaching in a big way. In particular, HTC and Samsung have been since they've smoothed out android's UI and made it even more user friendly (if bloated).

So Apple went all lawsuit happy. They want to suppress any competition. turns out, the competition isn't so happy about that and is hitting back. Hard. In the case of VIA part of it is the relation with HTC, the other part is I'm sure VIA has an interest in the tablet market. VIA has never done well at the high end and so has stopped trying, but they do low end pretty well. Maybe they want in to the tablet market.

When you start suing everyone, expect to see the same in return.

Re:Investors might sue?

[chrb]

Wen Chi Chen founded VIA Technologies in 1983, and has run the company for almost 30 years, building it from nothing into a billion dollar company that is now the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets. He is the Taiwanese equivalent of Steve Jobs. Under his stewardship VIA successfully defended a patent attack from Intel that led to 11 different court cases in 5 different countries (sound familiar?). The investors don't care about the family connection - they care about profit. And if VIA's patent portfolio was strong enough to convince Intel to settle, then what makes you think Apple will be any different? Intel holds many, many patents on fundamental CPU technologies; how many do you think Apple holds?

Re:Release the Kraken!

[Anonymous Coward]

As of Q2 2011 (I wonder what's more recent numbers are) they were market leader with a stunning 1% - it's as much as TEN promilles, I tell you! - leader over Samsung. That's if you look at individual manufacturers - not on the success of the platform.

As for "clone of Apple's products" - that's bullshit and even courts already know that's bullshit. Only Apple's fanboys still go on about rounded rectangle with bezels and with a grid of icons on display as "Apple chose their style". Look at LG Prada, for a start. Then look at iPhone. Now say, who copied who?

Re:Release the Kraken!

[besalope]

Except for the fact that they are the market leader. Name *ONE* mobile company doing better than Apple right now.

They've only sued over things they believe they own, and the courts have agreed with them. They aren't trying to stop HTC or Samsung from making their own products, but they *are* trying to stop them from making products that are too much a clone of Apple's products.

There are plenty of ways to make a multitouch phone and multitouch tablet. Apple chose their style. It's up to everyone else to choose their own as well.

Except that at the OS level Android has eclipsed iOS with 2x the marketshare in 1Q11 [gartner.com].

As for phone manufacturers: Nokia (25%), Samsung (16%), and LG (5.6%) are all ahead of Apple (3.9%) in market share.

As for styling, there's only so much you can do with a rectangular design with rounded corners.