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Google's Eric Schmidt Slams Apple Lawsuits
Apple Responding With Lawsuits Instead of Innovation
Earlier this year, Apple sued Samsung Electronics for copying "the look and feel" of the iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone. The battle continues, with the ITC expected to hand down a final ruling by December. The result could be that many Apple competitors could be forced into paying Apple royalties for certain design elements. That's not sitting too well with Google's Eric Schmidt, who launched into a rhetoric war against Apple this week, insisting the company was simply trying to stunt the growth of Android OS:
quote:
Speaking at Google's Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo, Mr Schmidt said Apple's case was inspired by jealousy and designed to shut down its fastest-growing rival. "The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding," he said. "Because they are not responding with innovation, they're responding with lawsuits. "We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success."
According to Schmidt, 550,000 Android OS-based phones are now being activated daily. As we noted yesterday, Apple has seen a significant boost in consumer interest thanks to the iPhone now being available on Verizon Wireless. Meanwhile, the level of patent lawsuit ridiculousness in the United States has some app developers looking elsewhere.
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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Patent lawsuits just raise costs to customers

All these patent lawsuits have 1 major result - higher costs for customers. And aside from the lawyers making tons of money, all it does is suppress innovation and new products - just the opposite of what the patent system was SUPPOSED to do.

pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium Member
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD

pnh102

Premium Member

Re: Patent lawsuits just raise costs to customers

said by FFH5:

All these patent lawsuits have 1 major result - higher costs for customers. And aside from the lawyers making tons of money, all it does is suppress innovation and new products - just the opposite of what the patent system was SUPPOSED to do.

The major problem of course is that the US Patent Office will patent just about anything. I could probably get the business process of taking a dump while facing backwards patented if I really wanted to do so. Perhaps if the US Patent Office stopped this practice, and granted patents to inventions that were novel and useful, this would not be such a big problem.

Fortunately patents still expire after 20 years, so eventually, these concepts will be out in the open.
tjmone
join:2011-02-01
Toronto, ON

tjmone

Member

Re: Patent lawsuits just raise costs to customers

I could probably get the business process of taking a dump while facing backwards patented if I really wanted to do so.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone beat you to that gem of a patent idea. Toto toilets probably has that one.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to pnh102

Premium Member

to pnh102
said by pnh102:

I could probably get the business process of taking a dump while facing backwards patented if I really wanted to do so.

True but in patent speech it would be "A process for removal of waste from the human body while facing backwards"

However you will have to pay me to do so....
I have a patent pending for the process of filing a patent.

and I also plan to patent the process of suing someone for patent infringement. that way I get money when one is filed and then I get money when one of these cases is filed.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

All these patent lawsuits have 1 major result - higher costs for customers. And aside from the lawyers making tons of money, all it does is suppress innovation and new products - just the opposite of what the patent system was SUPPOSED to do.

I'm sorry but it's stuff like this (»www.engadget.com/2011/07 ··· n-sense/) that pretty much solidifies Apple's argument against Samsung. I don't like the way the US patent system works, but it's pretty obvious to any rational observer Samsung has been ripping off Apple's designs. Samsung's execs have even bragged in Korean newspapers about their copying.

Basically Samsung is going to be trashed in court, and to be honest they deserve it. I love Oriental cultures, especially Japan and SK (it's why I studied Japanese for 4 years and studied abroad there for a year), but I understand the lack of originality and creativity that is inherent in their rigid structures of learning and thought.

Chinese companies can hide behind their gigantic government and the "developing country" moniker, but Samsung has no leverage. They deserve the financial beating they are soon going to receive in the smartphone market.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

1 recommendation

KrK

Premium Member

Re: Patent lawsuits just raise costs to customers

You could argue that so many devices "copy" other devices fashion sense or look. Look at flat panel TV's for example.

It's good that somebody didn't sue and block other manufacturers from developing and marketing flat TV's, isn't it?

spewak
R.I.P Dadkins
Premium Member
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA
·Consolidated Com..

spewak

Premium Member

Seriously??

If Schmidt were serious for a second, he would realize that ANY COMPANY would do the same. If by chance, Apples' lawsuits are without merit, they will go down the SCO road that Microsoft tried to use to stymy Linux. We all know how well that turned out!
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: Seriously??

IMHO they do have merit. When I was looking for an Android phone to replace my iPhone 3G I looked at the Samsung Galaxy on AT&T. The first thing I noticed was how much it looked like an iPhone. My wife said the same thing....

I ended up with a Droid X.

del ftl
@comcast.net

del ftl

Anon

Re: Seriously??

You cant seriously have thought that the Samsung captivate and the iphone 4 looked anything alike.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: Seriously??

The OS looked pretty much like an iPhone's OS. IIRC that's what the suit is about. It was like one of those Suny or Panasoonic TV's....

The hardware is very different though.

del ftl
@comcast.net

del ftl

Anon

Re: Seriously??

Ah, you're referring to the stale, ugly, unmodifiable "wall of icons" all iphones have had for 4+ years. You know the same unorganized look that you see when someone logs into their computer and the entire desktop is filled with icons. Surely you don't think that's actionable from a legal standpoint.

I guess out of the box touchwiz could resemble that, but the difference is that few users leave it like that. You don't pick up a dozen random captivates from users after a month of use and see the exact same look on the device that you'd get if you picked up millions of iphones from the last 4 years and looked at them.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: Seriously??

Doesn't matter what they look like after 1 minute, 5 minutes or 5 years. The fact is out of the box, they look very similar.

You have the phone, e-mail, browser, and whatever else at the bottom with a wall of icons. From what I remembered there were the dots at the bottom for pages, it scrolled left and right, etc.

Contrast that with the Droid X which has a wall of Icons and an app drawer but looks nothing like the iPhone.

Samsung was trying to bite off the iPhone and it's going to bite them in the A$$.

People have been biting off Apple for years:
Mac - Windows
Apple menu - Windows menu
Trash - Recycle Bin
Cursor ( Windows' cursor is a bit for bit copy of Apples, just white instead of black).
With Office 10 instead of the Save dialog box being Yes/No it's more Apple-like.
Desdinova
Premium Member
join:2003-01-26
Gaithersburg, MD

Desdinova

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

"People have been biting off Apple for years:..."

Does this mean that Steve Jobs recants having said "“We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas” and Apple will give back GUI, the mouse, DVI, USB, the dock, etc.?

»lunduke.com/?p=1709

Okay, let the flaming begin!!

KCrimson
Premium Member
join:2001-02-25
Brooklyn, NY

KCrimson

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

You're referring to Xerox, and Apple's visit to their research center where many of the features that would later be found on the first Macintosh were first being marketed and explored. Xerox allowed Jobs and co. to visit, and they were not marketing these ideas in anywhere near a complete computer OS. Windowing, use of a mouse, a GUI and Ethernet were being developed, but it took the Macintosh team that was put together by Jobs to create something with it besides a word processor. Then there's NeXtStep and its OSX step-sibbling - that Jobs just kept stealing good ideas - oh, wait... that's not right... Let the hating continue...

BTW - Apple stunned the financial world today with its latest quarterly earnings - the iPad2 is another Apple misadventure gone horribly right.
Desdinova
Premium Member
join:2003-01-26
Gaithersburg, MD

Desdinova

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

No worries, not hating...just playing. The point being that manipulating someone else's work is fine...but it's only part of the equation and it might be useful if folks at Apple (and Apple folks) remembered that the Great Fruit has done a tremendous amount of what it doesn't want others to do to them.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05
said by itguy05:

People have been biting off Apple for years:
Mac - Windows

to be fair both companies stole the GUI from Xerox, and the mouse was by Xerox as well
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN

Chubbysumo

Member

Re: Seriously??

Apple's "OSx" operating system was developed in 1992, Windows was first developed and marketed in the 1980s, so who stole from who here? unless jobs' aids made him a time traveler.

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac

Member

Re: Seriously??

said by Chubbysumo:

Apple's "OSx" operating system was developed in 1992, Windows was first developed and marketed in the 1980s, so who stole from who here? unless jobs' aids made him a time traveler.

The Mac came out in 1984, way before Windows was a gleam in Bill Gate's eye. Macs simply ran MacOS until they switched to OS X, the later which is actually UNIX based.

ToxicDrew
Premium Member
join:2001-09-24

ToxicDrew to del ftl

Premium Member

to del ftl
said by del ftl :

Ah, you're referring to the stale, ugly, unmodifiable "wall of icons" all iphones have had for 4+ years.

Yes the same design that made Apple $65 BILLION in fun cash.

del ftl
@comcast.net

del ftl

Anon

Re: Seriously??

We are referring to the "wall of icons", not the I-want-my-friends-to-be-jealous "glass sandwich" with the apple logo on the back of it that is the primary basis for Apples iphone sales. The other major selling point being apps, which apple has nothing to do with.

If apple were to ditch the wall of icons (using your logic) they would lose billions. This is not true.

ToxicDrew
Premium Member
join:2001-09-24

ToxicDrew

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

You fandroids crack me up

del ftl
@tmodns.net

del ftl

Anon

Re: Seriously??

Why? Because we pick a superior platform vs something that looks pretty?

By the way it's not bad that someone picks something based off of looks. It's only bad if they aren't able to understand that they did.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

1 recommendation

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: Seriously??

said by del ftl :

Why? Because we pick a superior platform vs something that looks pretty?

By the way it's not bad that someone picks something based off of looks. It's only bad if they aren't able to understand that they did.

Stop being such an idiot. Articles like this (»www.engadget.com/2011/07 ··· n-sense/) pretty much prove Samsung has been stealing Apple's ideas. They are going to lose in court and they 100% deserve it.
fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

1 recommendation

fiberguy2 to del ftl

Premium Member

to del ftl
Superior platform? says who? you?

Last I checked, the use of any cell phone or portable device is a personal experience, not a shared public one. Just because YOU say and believe it's "superior" doesn't mean it is for the next guy.

Stop acting like a pompass cheerleader cheering for 'one side' over the other because it's a one-man competition for you and anyone else with no life that will join you. The truth is that the other side will never care anyway.

Android may be "superior" to you, but to the next guy it's iOS for them.. answer one question the next time you flap your gums,.. what does it matter what phone someone else chooses to use... how exactly does it affect you? ..many dumb phone users look at smart ALL smart phone users and think "what idiots for blowing so much money on stupid phone"... again, it's a personal experience, not a shared one. And guess what, install Yahoo messenger on your android and do the same on an iPhone.. interesting thing is that they can both communicate with each other. Amazing huh? Seriously... save the energy on something in life that really matters instead of what OS is superior in your eyes because it doesn't matter.

.. so anyway, moving along.
Angrychair
join:2000-09-20
Jacksonville, FL

Angrychair to itguy05

Member

to itguy05
Do you actually think there's a big difference between the way all smart phones look?

Tokidoki
Premium Member
join:2002-08-26
South Richmond Hill, NY

Tokidoki

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

said by Angrychair:

Do you actually think there's a big difference between the way all smart phones look?

Obviously people think you can do so much to differentiate a small rectangular device. Makers should change the design and make it a star.

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac to Angrychair

Member

to Angrychair
There can be differences. For example the Droid X's UI looks nothing like the iPhone's.

It's when interfaces look nearly identical that shows lack of creativity and originality.
Angrychair
join:2000-09-20
Jacksonville, FL

Angrychair

Member

Re: Seriously??

How different can a grid of icons or QWERTY layout keyboard really look?

Are you seriously implying that GUI standards established ~40 years ago and even older keyboard layouts are now somehow the intellectual property of apple?

KCrimson
Premium Member
join:2001-02-25
Brooklyn, NY

KCrimson

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

Actually the look and feel of the GUI on consumer computers WAS litigated decades ago - by Apple, against Digital Research (GEM desktop), and Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (Windows 2.0) in two cases that provided Apple with only a small portion of what they sought. The judges in the two cases acknowledged that Apple created the look and feel, but ended up only forcing the violators to change certain aspects of that look and feel. »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap ··· tigation
in the end the lawsuits' results were a mixed-bag for Apple - they actually SHOULD have done better, but they still maintained certain aspects of MacOS that allowed it to remain unique.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ap ··· tigation

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac to Angrychair

Member

to Angrychair
said by Angrychair:

How different can a grid of icons or QWERTY layout keyboard really look?

Are you seriously implying that GUI standards established ~40 years ago and even older keyboard layouts are now somehow the intellectual property of apple?

Somehow the majority of the other hardware developers managed to make it look different enough.

Some manufacturers simply wanted to more or less duplicate the iPhone. I mean look at the Galaxy S, it duplicates the iPhone UI down to the icon tray and home button.

Compare that to the Droid, which looks different from the iPhone.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin to Angrychair

Member

to Angrychair
said by Angrychair:

How different can a grid of icons or QWERTY layout keyboard really look?

Are you seriously implying that GUI standards established ~40 years ago and even older keyboard layouts are now somehow the intellectual property of apple?

How about this blatant Samsung rip-off? »www.engadget.com/2011/07 ··· n-sense/

joako
Premium Member
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null

joako to Morac

Premium Member

to Morac
said by Morac:

There can be differences. For example the Droid X's UI looks nothing like the iPhone's.

It's when interfaces look nearly identical that shows lack of creativity and originality.

Before there was iPad there was Microsoft Oulook. Apple stole iPad mail from Microsoft.

KCrimson
Premium Member
join:2001-02-25
Brooklyn, NY

KCrimson

Premium Member

Re: Seriously??

When my choices on the Win32 platform were largely Outlook Express (OE) vs Outlook, even when I had Office on the machine, unless my tasks REQUIRED Outlook (for scheduling), I preferred OE. I don't own an iPad, but I use Mail.app, and I can't imagine that Apple could have kludged-up an email app to create an interface akin to Outlook on a portable device - it would be beyond overkill.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05 to joako

Member

to joako
said by joako:

Before there was iPad there was Microsoft Oulook. Apple stole iPad mail from Microsoft.

Outlook was a POS when it came out in 1998 and is a POS today. As is the MS-Mail/Exchange that requires outlook in some corporate settings.

And I don't see how iPad mail was stolen from Outlook. There were plenty of mail clients before Outlook. Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Windows Mail, Netscape mail all come to the top of my mind and were well before Outlook.

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine to Angrychair

Member

to Angrychair
said by Angrychair:

Do you actually think there's a big difference between the way all smart phones look?

No because Palm made a good concept, Apple enhanced it and made it a winner and everyone copied it.
TheGuvnor9
join:2006-06-23
Beverly Hills, CA

TheGuvnor9

Member

I love when big companies...

talk about tort reform....So ironic.
SunnyD
join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL

SunnyD

Member

Hello Mr. Schmidt... you must be new here.

It's called Corporate America dude... get used to it.

Cheese
Premium Member
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL

Cheese

Premium Member

Re: Hello Mr. Schmidt... you must be new here.

said by SunnyD:

It's called Corporate America dude... get used to it.

Trying to kill and dismember a company, that is not corporate America
praetoralpha
join:2005-08-06
Pittsburgh, PA

praetoralpha

Member

Re: Hello Mr. Schmidt... you must be new here.

said by Cheese:

said by SunnyD:

It's called Corporate America dude... get used to it.

Trying to kill and dismember a company, that is not corporate America

You're right. Nickel-and-dimeing and suing your customers: that's corporate America.
sparc
join:2006-05-06

sparc

Member

next time license the patents beforehand....

this just seems like sour grapes against Apple and Microsoft.

Google could have licensed patents during their design of android. Instead they decided to build something and let the hardware manufacturers pay the price for using someone else's patents.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: next time license the patents beforehand....

said by sparc:

this just seems like sour grapes against Apple and Microsoft.

Google could have licensed patents during their design of android. Instead they decided to build something and let the hardware manufacturers pay the price for using someone else's patents.

I don't think you understand how screwed up software patents are. Google has *no idea* what Microsoft patents Android has violated. Microsoft is under no obligation to disclose what part of Android "copies" their "innovations". If Google could find out what Microsoft was suing over (at least officially), they would immediately rewrite the infringing code and avoid the patent lawsuits.

That's how stupid software patents are.

But Apple's beef with Samsung isn't merely about trivial software implementations. It has everything to do with ripping off the design and feel of the iPhone, which is extremely unique and carries humongous brand recognition.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Good for him

He's calling it like it is.

Alcohol
Premium Member
join:2003-05-26
Climax, MI

Alcohol

Premium Member

Re: Good for him

said by BiggA:

He's calling it like it is.

+1.

He didn't say anything wrong.

cpsycho
join:2008-06-03
Treadeu Land

cpsycho

Member

Patent Time

I'm gonna patent the use of black and white in use with websites.

heat84
DSLR Influencer
join:2004-03-11
Delray Beach, FL

heat84

Member

Re: Patent Time

I'm gonna patent the use of patents.

Did anybody ever patent the wheel?
heat84

heat84

Member

IOS

Why doesn't Cisco sue Apple over IOS? Cisco had it first(the name I mean).

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Fighting innovation with Lawsuits.

The "new" American Way.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Not again?

Apple is the new SCO. Would Jobs please die already?
kerya666
join:2002-12-20
Valrico, FL

kerya666

Member

Meh patents.

That's it I'm patenting wheels and a steering wheel. And then suing all vehicle manufacturers.

All of these layout patents are a joke. Even though I personally like Apple products, they became a huge patent troll in the last couple of years ever-since Android started to chew on their market-share. They should go in the corner and join Rambus.

It really makes me sick to see sad things like these, its not like they made a first touchscreen device, nor icon layout of a phone so this should not even be mentioned. And neither does Samsung advertise their system to be iOS-like or equivalent so whats the problem?
Their patent is too broad.
Instead they should be focusing more on actually making the new iphone 4g/5 than crap like this. All of these companies hold crazy patents but if everyone would be to nit-pick everything we would never get any phone releases. This is cheap and dirty-business in my book.