MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Apple accused of violating the Zen Patent

macrotor · 09-01-2005, 12:47 PM

<sigh> I'm getting tired of feeling myself change views on patents.

I remember back when Microsoft stole the GUI from Apple (yes, I'm aware of the Xerox story). I thought, "go get 'em!"

But, it's gone to far...by EVERYONE. One-click purchase? Song-search? It's one thing to create an operating system and want to protect it, but whose great idea was it to provide all-encompassing patents on individual FEATURES?

There needs to be something in the law that states you can't just wait until something is successful before pulling the patent-card at least. This whole, "let's only attack the one who has made money for the last three years so we can charge them 30 million dollars" is stupid. The iPod has been out for a long time. Apple has not budgeted for "gotcha" legal suits. Anybody who thought that it infringed on patents should have complied within 6 months. After that...too bad! People are spending too much time trying to bend their own patents to apply to successful merchandise so they can make a buck.

An alternate solution would be to require that licensing fees will only apply from the date that the patent-infringement accusation was submitted. Any devices sold prior to that do not apply.

- Jim

09-01-2005, 12:47 PM	#3
macrotor Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 2418 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Fremont, CA, USA Device: Tungsten\|C with Nokia6200	<sigh> I'm getting tired of feeling myself change views on patents. I remember back when Microsoft stole the GUI from Apple (yes, I'm aware of the Xerox story). I thought, "go get 'em!" But, it's gone to far...by EVERYONE. One-click purchase? Song-search? It's one thing to create an operating system and want to protect it, but whose great idea was it to provide all-encompassing patents on individual FEATURES? There needs to be something in the law that states you can't just wait until something is successful before pulling the patent-card at least. This whole, "let's only attack the one who has made money for the last three years so we can charge them 30 million dollars" is stupid. The iPod has been out for a long time. Apple has not budgeted for "gotcha" legal suits. Anybody who thought that it infringed on patents should have complied within 6 months. After that...too bad! People are spending too much time trying to bend their own patents to apply to successful merchandise so they can make a buck. An alternate solution would be to require that licensing fees will only apply from the date that the patent-infringement accusation was submitted. Any devices sold prior to that do not apply. - Jim