Could Apple stop throwing its toys out of the pram, there are only so many ways you can make a phone, next thing you know they will patent breathing & we will all have to buy ‘i’ branded air

Apple now seem to be in the business of patent-trolling. Rather than competing on technological grounds (where Asian manufacturers like HTC and Samsung are wiping the floor with them), they’ve obviously opted to hinder their competitors via obstructive lawsuits aimed at distracting the competition from their core business.

dear Apple f**k off thank you

Brian, it’s one of the reasons software patents are so hard to justify.

Firstly, software, fundamentally being an assortment of algorithms and maths, is unpatentable in and of itself, so inventors have to frame their patent application as a system executing their code/algorithms. You’ll see the phrase “System and method for” in most software patent applications. So legal hacks have to be employed to patent software.

Secondly, based on its history, the software industry is prone to natural monopolies or duopolies. Patents, originally conceived to incentivise innovation by securing an inventor exclusive rights over their invention, are actually being used by big corporations like Apple and Microsoft to raise the barrier to entry into the market for smaller competitors and freeze them out by either forcing them to pay licensing royalties for use of their (often trivial ) inventions, or facing legal action as is the case here. Apple have a long history of taking legal action (and losing, I might add) against whatever competitors were the biggest threat in the particular market they competed in (Microsoft, Creative, Samsung, HTC etc.) , so this is no surprise. They’re actually suing Samsung, who manufacture the A5 CPU’s for their iPhones/iPads/iTouchs as well.

Thirdly, the USPTO is notoriously slow (and bad) at judging the merit of software patents, in the past granting patents on inventions which are both provably impossible to work and/or hilariously self-evident like Amazon’s one-click purchase patent a few years ago. Another interesting thing to note is that, software patents are not legally recognised outside of the US.

In a way, Apple are a symptom of bad policy in the US legal system, but it affects you and me who don’t want to pay a premium for overpriced technology which is already behind the curve technologically when it’s released.

Apple, with the attitude, are turning more like Microsoft every day

I wonder if iPhone owners go onto other phone and platform articles & forums to troll… or is it just an android/htc owner etc phenomenon?

Dear cheap plasticky Asian iPhone rip offs, please fuck off. Thank you!

No, didn’t do anything for me!!

I’m surprised Google are being investigated for antitrust practices and Apple aren’t. I mean there’s this abuse of the system with its patent suits, the whole iTunes DRM racket (which they’ve admittedly stopped), the freezing out of competitors to Apple-made apps in the App Store… surely that would be enough wouldn’t it? Don’t think Google have even done that much.

An iPhone can only do what a blackberry could 5 years previous