05.22.14
Apple is Abandoning Steve Jobs’ Thermonuclear War on Linux/Android
Summary: Apple is reportedly folding and moving away from the counterproductive war that Steve Jobs started before his death
There are indications in the media (both large and small outlets) that after vicious attacks against HTC Apple may end litigation against Samsung, quite similarly. As one person put it: “The long and drawn out battle between Samsung Electronics and Apple over the ownership of various intellectual properties may be coming to a close.”
Samsung and Apple have been in the courts for years (only lawyers won). Apple started it all because Apple is silly and it was headed by an arrogant man at the time. To quote HBR:
Look out across today’s ultra-competitive smartphone market and you’ll see something resembling the religious wars of the Middle Ages. This is no quaint summer-weekend reenactment. The weapons being brandished are devilishly constructed patents; the rules of engagement the arcane procedures of federal courts. And the havoc being wreaked — in higher prices, banned devices, and stifled innovation — is laying waste to the industry landscape.
The central battle pits Apple against everyone and everything involved with Android, Google’s open source operating system.
Android’s release, for Apple’s late founder and CEO Steve Jobs, was the ultimate heresy. “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to,” Jobs is quoted as saying in a series of jeremiads, “and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40bn in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
And so Apple has. Between 2006 and 2012, the company was involved, sometimes as plaintiff and sometimes as defendant, in nearly 150 patent lawsuits around the world over various features of its iPhone — including hardware, software, and product design.
Like the religious wars of old, a complex web of alliances, side agreements, and mutual defense pacts have conspired to draw the entire industry into open warfare. Sony is suing LG. Nokia is suing HTC. Motorola (owned by Google since 2011) is suing and being sued by everyone.
Based on this other new report, Apple is close to giving up, having failed to tax Android in any significant way. Reuters says the following:
Apple Inc and Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle all patent litigation between them over smartphone technology, ending one of the highest profile lawsuits in technology.
In a joint statement on Friday, the companies said the settlement does not include a cross license to their respective patents.
“Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform,” the statement said.
Apple and companies that make phones using Google’s Android software have filed dozens of such lawsuits against each other around the world to protect their technology. Apple argued that Android phones that use Google software copy its iPhones.
It is starting to look like Apple is admitting defeat and abandoning Jobs’ aggressive legacy. It is worth noting that Apple has launched no new major cases since Jobs died. It is a good sign because it may mean that Apple as an aggressor in the courtroom might be a dead legacy. █
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Michael said,
May 22, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Apple seems to be working to get out-of-court agreements, as they did with Google. Samsung seems to be unwilling, at least so far.
We do not know the details – but you deem Apple the evil one. Again.
Yet you have never, that I know of, offered an alternative action Apple should have done to protect their IP that Samsung has clearly been abusing.
satipera said,
May 28, 2014 at 12:07 am
@Michael It is not intellectual property. You try to make it sound as if Samsung stole something physical, real property not made up property. We both know it is risible, bullying, anti competitive, anti innovation gaming of a badly discredited and broken system.
Michael said,
May 28, 2014 at 12:27 am
I never suggested IP was something physical. That is a straw man.
And you dodged the question: how would you have companies protect their IP? Do you think simply because it is not physical they should not protect it at all? Do you think I should be able to publish a book called “Larry Potter” where I change a few names from someone else’s IP and sell it for half the price?
Really, what is your point?