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All Your Rectangles Are Not Apple's

Steve Jobs with patent
Original photo by Matt Buchanan; edited by Techrights



Summary: Apple fails to guard insane monopolies on shapes and basic geometry -- patents which it has used to ban Linux-powered and Open Source products

Lisa Shuchman says that "Design Patent Suits Becoming Less Prevalent in U.S. Courts", but Apple, which gets knocked down by analysts as it cancels orders (Android eats its lunch), continues betting on design patents.



Apple patents boosters brag about new ones [1, 2] while another court kicks Apple the curb on this one. A Dutch-English version of this early report says:

The Galaxy Tab 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1 of Samsung do not infringe on Apple's tablet design, the Hague court judges now in the main proceedings. Het kort geding ligt al bij de Hoge Raad. The lawsuit is already at the Supreme Court.

Samsung behaalt andermaal een overwinning in een juridisch gevecht met Apple om het uiterlijk van zijn tablets. Samsung achieves a further victory in a legal battle with Apple to change the look of his tablets. De Galaxy Tab 7.7, 8.9 en 10.1 vallen niet onder de beschermingsomvang van het Gemeenschapsmodel van Apple, een serie schetsen van een rechthoekig device uit 2004. The Galaxy Tab 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1 are not covered by the scope of the Community design from Apple, a series of sketches of a rectangular device in 2004. Dat oordeelt de Haagse rechtbank in een bodemprocedure die door Samsung was aangespannen. That considers the Hague court in proceedings by Samsung was filed.


Later came some reports in English. We have already explained why we prefer not to cite English-speaking press and courts, where it is common to assume Asian designs are borderline ripoffs at best.

Speaking of Apple, it was rumoured to be interested in buying the patent portfolio of Kodak, which had sued Apple for patent violations. Kodak is being compared to Openwave by Christine Hall, who writes:

While there’s been a feeding frenzy at Kodak, with a group of tech’s heavy hitters grabbing patents at fire sale prices, Ericsson has been busy making a deal with a troll to do their dirty work for them.

In the later case, the troll is Unwired Planet, a company that at one time, as Openwave Systems, was a major player in the mobile software world, credited with pioneering the Mobile Internet and being the original developer of HDML, a precursor to WML. Nowdays it appears as if the company has morphed into troll territory, having shed itself of most, if not all, of its software offerings to concentrate on licensing and enforcement of its portfolio of patents.


Patent trolls have a good chance at winning cases because no deterrence in the form of countersuit will ever be brought against them. They have no products. That's why Microsoft, for example, likes arming patent trolls. Microsoft folks even created the world's biggest patent troll.

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