Summary: VirnetX, a notorious patent troll, is poised to receive a huge sum of money from Apple and Qualcomm is trying to ban Apple products, serving to remind Apple of the detrimental impact of patents on Apple itself

AS reported in some Apple fan sites and VirnetX with its press release, Apple will need to pay about half a billion dollars for some dubious patents. It's the latest reminder to Apple that software patents should be abolished.

There is also an attempt to ban all the 'i' things. That's the latest on Qualcomm, as we noted yesterday. Even patent fanatics from IAM don't think Qualcomm's strategy will succeed. As they put it some hours ago:

A series of Beijing lawsuits first reported by Bloomberg on Friday are just the latest salvos in the increasingly bitter global patent war between Qualcomm and Apple. Announcing the new suits to the press, Qualcomm declared explicitly that it will seek an injunction in China to stop the manufacture and sale of iPhones.

The three cases have been filed to the Beijing IP Court. A Qualcomm spokesperson said the patents are related to power management and touch screen technologies, and made clear that they are not standard essential patents (SEPs). Apple emphasised that the rights are peripheral to the core of the dispute between the two companies, saying in a statement: “In our many years of ongoing negotiations with Qualcomm, these patents have never been discussed.” But by asserting patents not subject to a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing pledge, Qualcomm is likely to be counting on an easier path to injunctive relief - its stated goal.

Wouldn't it be a lot simpler for Apple if software patents simply did not exist (in China too)? Many of the patents Qualcomm is using are software patents. ⬆