EditorsAbout the SiteComes vs. MicrosoftUsing This Web SiteSite ArchivesCredibility IndexOOXMLOpenDocumentPatentsNovellNews DigestSite NewsRSS

07.07.12

Calls for Apple Boycott Follow Ineffective Android Ban Attempts; Judge Compares Apple to Animals

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google at 10:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Wild hedgehog

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. :-P 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).

iPad

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • co.mments
  • DZone
  • email
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • NewsVine
  • Print
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • Facebook

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

A Single Comment

  1. walterbyrd said,

    July 7, 2012 at 11:48 am

    Gravatar

    #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

What Else is New


  1. With Help From the US Supreme Court (Key Cases), Patent Trolls Are Going Away

    The demise of patent trolls in the United States, a trend partly attributable to Alice and other Supreme Court decisions, will likely accelerate soon (later this year) as the future of the Eastern District of Texas courts is at stake



  2. Patent Maximalism on Display: Patent Aggressor IBM Celebrated in the Media

    The patent lust at IBM, which is suing if not just shaking down companies using software patents, earns plenty of puff pieces from the corporate media



  3. FFPE-EPO, the EPO Management's Pet/Yellow Union, Helps Union-Busting (Against SUEPO) in Letter to Notorious Vice-President

    In a letter to Elodie Bergot (as CC) and Željko Topić, who faces many criminal investigations, FFPE-EPO ringleaders reveal their allegiance not to EPO staff but to those who perpetually attack the staff



  4. Links 9/1/2017: Civilization VI Coming to GNU/Linux, digiKam 5.4.0 Released

    Links for the day



  5. Links 9/1/2017: Dell’s Latest XPS 13, GPD Pocket With GNU/Linux

    Links for the day



  6. Update on Patent Trolls and Their Enablers: IAM, Fortress, Inventergy, Nokia, MOSAID/Conversant, Microsoft, Intellectual Ventures, Faraday Future, A*STAR, GPNE, AlphaCap Ventures, and TC Heartland

    A potpourri of reports about some of the world’s worst patent trolls and their highly damaging enablers/facilitators, including Microsoft which claims that it “loves Linux” whilst attacking it with patents by proxy



  7. Mark Summerfield: “US Supreme Court Decision in Alice Looks to Have Eliminated About 75% of New Business Method Patents.”

    Some of the patent microcosm, or those who profit from the bureaucracy associated with patents, responds to claims made by Techrights (that software patents are a dying breed in the US)



  8. Eight Wireless Patents Have Just Been Invalidated Under Section 101 (Alice), But Don't Expect the Patent Microcosm to Cover This News

    Firms that are profiting from patents (without actually producing or inventing anything) want us to obsess over and think about the rare and few cases (some very old) where judges deny Alice and honour patents on software



  9. 2017: Latest Year That the Unitary Patent (UPC) is Still Stuck in a Limbo

    The issues associated with the UPC, especially in light of ongoing negotiations of Britain's exit from the EU, remain too big a barrier to any implementation this year (and probably future years too)



  10. Links 7/1/2017: Linux 4.9.1, Wine 2.0 RC4

    Links for the day



  11. India Keeps Rejecting Software Patents in Spite of Pressure From Large Foreign Multinationals

    India's resilience in the face of incredible pressure to allow software patents is essential for the success of India's growing software industry and more effort is needed to thwart corporate colonisation through patents in India itself



  12. Links 6/1/2017: Irssi 1.0.0, KaOS 2017.01 Released

    Links for the day



  13. Watchtroll a Fake News Site in Lobbying Mode and Attack Mode Against Those Who Don't Agree (Even PTAB and Judges)

    A look at some of the latest spin and the latest shaming courtesy of the patent microcosm, which behaves so poorly that one has to wonder if its objective is to alienate everyone



  14. The Productivity Commission Warns Against Patent Maximalism, Which is Where China (SIPO) is Heading Along With EPO

    In defiance of common sense and everything that public officials or academics keep saying (European, Australian, American), China's SIPO and Europe's EPO want us to believe that when it comes to patents it's "the more, the merrier"



  15. Technical Failure of the European Patent Office (EPO) a Growing Cause for Concern

    The problem associated with Battistelli's strategy of increasing so-called 'production' by granting in haste everything on the shelf is quickly being grasped by patent professionals (outside EPO), not just patent examiners (inside EPO)



  16. Links 5/1/2017: Inkscape 0.92, GNU Sed 4.3

    Links for the day



  17. Links 4/1/2017: Cutelyst 1.2.0 and Lumina 1.2 Desktop Released

    Links for the day



  18. Financial Giants Will Attempt to Dominate or Control Bitcoin, Blockchain and Other Disruptive Free Software Using Software Patents

    Free/Open Source software in the currency and trading world promised to emancipate us from the yoke of banking conglomerates, but a gold rush for software patents threatens to jeopardise any meaningful change or progress



  19. New Article From Heise Explains Erosion of Patent Quality at the European Patent Office (EPO)

    To nobody's surprise, the past half a decade saw accelerating demise in quality of European Patents (EPs) and it is the fault of Battistelli's notorious policies



  20. Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part V: Suspension of Salary and Unfair Trials

    One of the lesser-publicised cases of EPO witch-hunting, wherein a member of staff is denied a salary "without any notification"



  21. Links 3/1/2017: Microsoft Imposing TPM2 on Linux, ASUS Bringing Out Android Phones

    Links for the day



  22. Links 2/1/2017: Neptune 4.5.3 Release, Netrunner Desktop 17.01 Released

    Links for the day



  23. Teaser: Corruption Indictments Brought Against Vice-President of the European Patent Office (EPO)

    New trouble for Željko Topić in Strasbourg, making it yet another EPO Vice-President who is on shaky grounds and paving the way to managerial collapse/avalanche at the EPO



  24. 365 Days Later, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas Remains Silent and Thus Complicit in EPO Abuses on German Soil

    The utter lack of participation, involvement or even intervention by German authorities serve to confirm that the government of Germany is very much complicit in the EPO's abuses, by refusing to do anything to stop them



  25. Battistelli's Idea of 'Independent' 'External' 'Social' 'Study' is Something to BUY From Notorious Firm PwC

    The sham which is the so-called 'social' 'study' as explained by the Central Staff Committee last year, well before the results came out



  26. Europe Should Listen to SMEs Regarding the UPC, as Battistelli, Team UPC and the Select Committee Lie About It

    Another example of UPC promotion from within the EPO (a committee dedicated to UPC promotion), in spite of everything we know about opposition to the UPC from small businesses (not the imaginary ones which Team UPC claims to speak 'on behalf' of)



  27. Video: French State Secretary for Digital Economy Speaks Out Against Benoît Battistelli at Battistelli's PR Event

    Uploaded by SUEPO earlier today was the above video, which shows how last year's party (actually 2015) was spoiled for Battistelli by the French State Secretary for Digital Economy, Axelle Lemaire, echoing the French government's concern about union busting etc. at the EPO (only to be rudely censored by Battistelli's 'media partner')



  28. When EPO Vice-President, Who Will Resign Soon, Made a Mockery of the EPO

    Leaked letter from Willy Minnoye/management to the people who are supposed to oversee EPO management



  29. No Separation of Powers or Justice at the EPO: Reign of Terror by Battistelli Explained in Letter to the Administrative Council

    In violation of international labour laws, Team Battistelli marches on and engages in a union-busting race against the clock, relying on immunity to keep this gravy train rolling before an inevitable crash



  30. FFPE-EPO is a Zombie (if Not Dead) Yellow Union Whose Only de Facto Purpose Has Been Attacking the EPO's Staff Union

    A new year's reminder that the EPO has only one legitimate union, the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO), whereas FFPE-EPO serves virtually no purpose other than to attack SUEPO, more so after signing a deal with the devil (Battistelli)


CoPilotCo

RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

CoPilotCo

Recent Posts