07.07.12
Calls for Apple Boycott Follow Ineffective Android Ban Attempts; Judge Compares Apple to Animals
Summary: Apple is hit harshly for its aggressive behaviour that targets Android
MR. Karsten Gerloff from the FSFE writes that “Posner’s common sense slices through the #swpat [software patents] foolishness like a knife through butter. Fun indeed.” He refers to this article titled “Judge who shelved Apple trial says patent system out of sync”. To quote: “The U.S. judge who tossed out one of the biggest court cases in Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) smartphone technology battle is questioning whether patents should cover software or most other industries at all.”
Carlo Piana, who worked with the FSFE in the antitrust case against Microsoft, writes that “Judge Posner says same things as anti #swpats, now that’s fun 
”
He also wrote to me that “pissing off a 70_something appellate court judge, must be a record. 
The situation is contemptuous.” (source)
Apple has already banned some Android products, sometimes using fake 'evidence' to make its bogus case. There is going to be evasion from the ban, but not just yet. The customers suffer, not just companies. The Berkeley LUG says that “if you care about innovation, you shouldn’t” buy Apple products. It is essentially a boycott then. A Microsoft booster notes that the aforemented judge calls Apple (and the likes of it) “animals”. To quote the context:
Judge Richard Posner, who recently threw out an entire patent lawsuit involving Apple and Motorola, has been nothing if not outspoken on the wildly busy US patent litigation system. In an interview published today by Reuters, he calls patent litigants animals struggling for survival and suggests that some industries—perhaps including software—shouldn’t have patent protection at all.
This comparison is an insult to animals; they are not so arrogant and self righteous. Here in the UK Apple is laughed out of the court for obvious reasons:
HTC has won an important case against Apple in UK. The court ruled that HTC did not infringe four Apple patents including the infamous ‘slide to unlock’.
Four Apple claims that the court threw out of window include:
* Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image
* Portable radio communication apparatus using different alphabets
* Portable electronic device for photo management (related to multi and single touch gestures)
* Portable electronic device for photo management (involves the animation when you stretch the image and it bounces back)
Apple’s patents are so ridiculous that cartoons have been made about them (one is shown at the bottom). █
walterbyrd said,
July 7, 2012 at 11:48 am
#BoycottApple
And So It’s Come To This: Samsung/Google Forced To Degrade Features In Patent Dispute
> The latest in the ridiculous saga of the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, which has resulted in Samsung phones and tablets being banned from sale in the US, is that Samsung, with the help of Google, has been pushing out an over-the-air software update to make its phones worse. Yes, the OTA update is designed to take away a feature, in an effort to convince the judge that the phones no longer violate Apple’s patents. The feature in question? The ability to do a single search that covers both the local device and the internet. Because, you know, if Apple had never figured that out, I’m sure no one would have ever thought to search two databases with a single query. Either way, the end result is that the public loses a useful feature, because Apple doesn’t want to compete, and a federal judge seems to think that’s okay.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120705/03281819586/so-its-come-to-this-samsunggoogle-forced-to-degrade-features-patent-dispute.shtml
Rotten Apple: Apple’s lousy design patent lawsuits
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | July 5, 2012 — Updated 23:47 GMT (16:47 PDT)
> Summary: If Apple continues to have its way it will be illegal to buy anything that looks like a tablet because it will infringe on Apple’s “design” patent.
> In the last couple of months a boycott Apple movement has started. It started as a protest about working conditions in Apple’s Chinese partners factories. But the banning of the Galaxy Tab seems to have given it new life.
http://www.zdnet.com/rotten-apple-apples-lousy-design-patent-lawsuits-7000000356/
Apple Granted Patent for Head-Mounted Display
By Christina BonningtonEmail Author July 3, 2012
> Google’s been flaunting its Google Glass prototype left and right, but it may not be the only company getting into the head-up-display business. Apple was granted a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus on Tuesday.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/apple-patent-hud-display/
Google Jellybean smokes Apple Siri
By Joe Wilcox | July 7, 2012
> But there’s a strange twist here. Google removed important search functionality from Android 4.1 in response to US Patent 8,086,604, which Apple successfully used to gain preliminary injunctions against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus.
http://betanews.com/2012/07/06/google-jellybean-smokes-apple-siri/
Federal Court of Appeals denies Samsung’s stay request on Galaxy Tab ban
Kevin Krause | Jul 6th 2012 at 4:30pm
> After Samsung was denied a temporary lift of a ban on their Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier in the week, the news isn’t getting much better. The US Court of Appeals has denied the Korean mobile manufacturers request for a stay on the ban issued by US District Judge Lucy Koh. With the ruling, Samsung’s only hope to get the tablet back on the US market is to reach some sort of licensing deal or settlement with Apple, an avenue that is reportedly being explored jointly with Google.
http://phandroid.com/2012/07/06/federal-court-of-appeals-denies-samsungs-stay-request-on-galaxy-tab-ban/
Android Win: Apple Blasted for Trolling, Sees EU Patents Decimated
Jason Mick (Blog) – July 5, 2012 3:10 PM
> “Obvious” patents should never have been granted, given prior art
> Apple, Inc.’s (AAPL) international quest to kill Android, not by competition, but by lawsuits hit a roadblock in the United Kingdom when a Judge ruled Apple’s patents to swipe-to-unlock patents to be invalid due to obviousness and prior art.
http://www.dailytech.com/Android+Win+Apple+Blasted+for+Trolling+Sees+EU+Patents+Decimated/article25104.htm
Apple pulls out of EPEAT green registration, may not be able to sell computers to federal agencies
By Steve Dent posted Jul 7th 2012 2:18AM
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/07/apple-pulls-out-of-epeat-green-registration/
How Steve Jobs Fooled the Leader of the Free World and His Opponents
In 2006 Samsung released the SGH-Z610, a phone that had a gesture based touchscreen, app drawer, front and rear facing cameras – the works.
http://theworldwarrior.com/?p=614
LG Prada
The LG KE850, also known as the LG Prada,[1] is a touchscreen mobile phone made by LG Electronics. It was first announced on December 12, 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada