When Patents Attack Android

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Google's Chief Legal Officer claims that Apple, Microsoft and others are all ganging up on his company with bogus patent claims. All this coming from the company that just bought 1,000 IBM patents last week. ;)

I have worked in the tech sector for over two decades. Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on. Here is what’s happening: More than 550,000 Android devices are activated every day, through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers. But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.
 
Maybe google should step up and offer some patent protection for oems. They are left high and dry at the moment.
 
WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!
Instead of posting bids to impress nerds, how about they actually try to win the next patent auction?
 
Apple and ms are scared. Android is crushing wp7. And its closing in on iphone. The only real viable option is to try and knock the feet out from under it.
 
Just more proof that are patent system is broken, and software patents should be done away with altogether.
 
they should be scared, i dont really care for phones untill the xperia play and yeh, wow, so much more user freindly than anything ive ever used.
 
Apple and ms are scared. Android is crushing wp7. And its closing in on iphone. The only real viable option is to try and knock the feet out from under it.

WP7 really is still to new with not enough devices to say that it's being crushed. It actually does have a higher user satisfaction rate than Android, all 10 of us. We really won't really get a good feel for Windows Phone until next year and perhaps Windows Phone and Windows merging as Windows 8 has an ARM version. There's just a lot of the story with Windows Phone to play out. It is still projected to do very well in the next 4 years by a lot of analysts, we shall see.

But of course the patent suits are meant to slow Android down but also to take a cut.
 
Apple and ms are scared. Android is crushing wp7. And its closing in on iphone. The only real viable option is to try and knock the feet out from under it.

It's already starting to push the iphones head into the sand. If I'm not mistaken there are quite a few more android based phones sold than iphones. Granted. they're from a bunch of different manufacturers and carriers; which is one of the reason's it is doing so well IMHO. You're not stuck with one form factor to hold wrong on 1 or 2 congested networks. :)
 
Just more proof that are patent system is broken, and software patents should be done away with altogether.

I don't think software patents should be done away with, but patents as vague as :click on a link to perform a function.
Should not be patentable.
 
Oh and I agree. You shouldn't be able to patent software. You patent hardware. The best software should get is copywrite. Being able to patent software is like being able to patent literature. You sure as shit cant patent the autobiography or science fiction. The concept is the same.
 
getting sick of companies suing companies doing better than they are ..hardware patents, sure with better clarification. i think the idiots in charge of approving/denying have no clue what they are actually reading about which is the problem
 
Thanks. That was a great read.

I would recommend listening to it rather than just reading the synopsis :p

The main guy (Ira Glass) has to have the most annoying voice on radio, but if you can get over that, his shows are usually really informative and interesting.
 
It's already starting to push the iphones head into the sand. If I'm not mistaken there are quite a few more android based phones sold than iphones. Granted. they're from a bunch of different manufacturers and carriers; which is one of the reason's it is doing so well IMHO. You're not stuck with one form factor to hold wrong on 1 or 2 congested networks. :)

Apple still commands a majority in the smartphone and tablet market. Android is catching up impressively, but they're not quite there yet. The recent launch of Verizon's iPhone and the iPad 2 gave Apple another healthy boost.

I recommend Googling "iPhone vs Android market share 2011". There are a lot of interesting articles to read concerning this. My favorite is this article due to it's explaining the pros and cons of each device without bias.
 
Well lets see if Google still pays for the java fiasco..

Yeah that's what I was thinking when I read the article too. Why is it ok for Google to skirt the law but cry when they get caught? Google's been playing with fire for a long time now. The wifi scandal, Java, taking pictures of private properties and faces for StreetView, telling China to take a hike - Google has always ended up being told to back off, and they do it.

Maybe if Google tries following the rules or playing fair, nobody would be bothering them so much.
 
reservoir_dogs-worlds_smallest_violin.gif


poor Google... always getting picked on
 
Considering that Apple had it's most massive profit ever last quarter, backed largely by record sales of iPhones, I don't think Android is "pushing its head in the sand" quite yet.
 
Yeah that's what I was thinking when I read the article too. Why is it ok for Google to skirt the law but cry when they get caught? Google's been playing with fire for a long time now. The wifi scandal, Java, taking pictures of private properties and faces for StreetView, telling China to take a hike - Google has always ended up being told to back off, and they do it.

Maybe if Google tries following the rules or playing fair, nobody would be bothering them so much.


Bull.

Google has been on the right side of all of these issues.
  • Street View: The law is pretty clear on this one. Photography is treated as a first amendment issue. The Supreme Court has upheld this. If it can be seen from a public place it is perfectly legal to take pictures of it, do whatever you wish with those pictures and distribute them however you want. There is no expectation of privacy in a public place. The only exception to this is military installations that have been classified as secret. even if publicly visible those may not be photographed and distributed. Google should not eve have to use their face and license plate blurring algorithms. They are caving on public pressure grounds here, not legal ones.
  • WiFi: The law is less clear here, that being said, the rationale from above pretty much applies. With Wifi, you are broadcasting your SSID and mac address publicly. As such it should be perfectly legal o use that information for any purpose. Provided they weren't breaking into secured networks, there is no legal problem here.
  • Java: In the java debacle, Oracle is the bad guy. They went in and bought out Sun, an open source, standards friendly company, and then started suing people and companies left and right for using Sun patents in ways that under Sun's stewardship was just fine. Oracle is the fucking devil as far as I am concerned, and I hope Google doesn't cave on this one.
  • China: Yes, Google broke China's laws in this case. But quite frankly, these are laws of censorship on a population by an oppressive dictatorship. Quite frankly, it is everyone's civic duty as a free human being to brake those laws. Bravo Google.
 
Zarathustra[H];1037591117 said:
Bull.

Google has been on the right side of all of these issues.
  • China: Yes, Google broke China's laws in this case. But quite frankly, these are laws of censorship on a population by an oppressive dictatorship. Quite frankly, it is everyone's civic duty as a free human being to brake those laws. Bravo Google.

Except that they then caved and complied.
 
Except that they then caved and complied.

Yeah, the bad part was that they caved.

What I was arguing was that google doesn't really "skirt the law" in most cases. At least not in the examples given (with the exception of China)
 
Considering that Apple had it's most massive profit ever last quarter, backed largely by record sales of iPhones, I don't think Android is "pushing its head in the sand" quite yet.

Yeah, that always bugged me how dishonest most 'journalists' (bloggers) are when comparing the two. You can't compare an OS to a hardware manufacturer... it's not an apples to apples comparison.

If you look at the big picture, iOS devices (Operating system) to Android devices (Operating system) or the iPhone (handset) to the droid (handset), for example, Apple still has a pretty healthy lead over the competition.

however, that doesn't spin the numbers in their favor, so it's ignored.
 
Patents were designed to encourage innovation.

Now they hinder innovation.

Do you know what I do with shit that doesn't do what I wanted it to do? I fix it or I throw it away. I don't keep using it in the hopes that someday it will do what I wanted it to do.

Patents in their current state are absolute insanity. It's a minefield that will pull America behind the rest of the world in the arena of ideas.
 
Patents were designed to encourage innovation.

Now they hinder innovation.

Do you know what I do with shit that doesn't do what I wanted it to do? I fix it or I throw it away. I don't keep using it in the hopes that someday it will do what I wanted it to do.

Patents in their current state are absolute insanity. It's a minefield that will pull America behind the rest of the world in the arena of ideas.

Except the rest of the world has more or less similar patent laws as we do. We're not the only ones suffering from this stupidity.
 
Except the rest of the world has more or less similar patent laws as we do. We're not the only ones suffering from this stupidity.

it gets rejected before its taken to court.... that usually what happens.
 
There's just a lot of the story with Windows Phone to play out. It is still projected to do very well in the next 4 years by a lot of analysts, we shall see.

I've seen enough of the story with MS trying to break into the mobile market to see that they won't do that well. They had a small degree of success in getting Windows CE into things like barcode scanners, but they have a long history of trying to (unsuccessfully) break into the mobile segment and I don't see that changing given current competition.
 
I thought Windows phones were always the minority?

And Apple have every right to be scared, the niche they had in the market is no longer theirs, and they need to drastically reinvent their appearance (and maybe their attitude towards customers that "owns" their product, being less restricted).

They are clutching at patent straws to try and impede the inevitable (Samsung, HTC, Motorola, the list goes on).

Apple have had their fair share of market dominance of the MP3 player/smart phone market, for the last decade, now it's Androids turn, and to be honest it does music a whole lot better as it can play any format under the sun, my iPhone...a bloody playlist, which is either AAC, or MP3 based, and that's it. I'm looking forward to the change up in September, to the S2, or whatever Samsung will have by then.
 
Except the rest of the world has more or less similar patent laws as we do. We're not the only ones suffering from this stupidity.

I think England requires more specific details of what the patent is regarding, instead of the vague crap I keep seeing pulled here in the US.
 
Apple and ms are scared. Android is crushing wp7. And its closing in on iphone. The only real viable option is to try and knock the feet out from under it.

I have both, and in my opinion, Android ain't "all that".
 
Zarathustra[H];1037590982 said:
I would recommend listening to it rather than just reading the synopsis :p
There's a full transcript if you follow the link. I'm too lazy to read all of that so I'll listen to it during my lunch break.
 
No one is getting crushed by Android more than Blackberry.

RIM, the makers of Blackberry have been doing a pretty good job of crushing themselves actually.

Clunky interfaces, crappy, phones and then comes their headliner, the new Playbook tablet....

...which doesn't have email??? :rolleyes:

There must be some serious self loathing going on up there in Canada...
 
Zarathustra[H];1037592470 said:
RIM, the makers of Blackberry have been doing a pretty good job of crushing themselves actually.

Clunky interfaces, crappy, phones and then comes their headliner, the new Playbook tablet....

...which doesn't have email??? :rolleyes:

There must be some serious self loathing going on up there in Canada...

I don't think it's so much android smacking RIM around. The iphone & RIM respectively lived alongside each other quite nicely while andriod was not a player yet. I see it as a lack of vision by senior management. It looks similar to Nokia to me. Great at one time, but could not keep their edge, which usually has to do with Senior Management not having a vision to guide the company with.
 
I don't think it's so much android smacking RIM around. The iphone & RIM respectively lived alongside each other quite nicely while andriod was not a player yet. I see it as a lack of vision by senior management. It looks similar to Nokia to me. Great at one time, but could not keep their edge, which usually has to do with Senior Management not having a vision to guide the company with.

And just like a salesman is only as good as their last sale, a company can only coast so long on their success.
 
There's a full transcript if you follow the link. I'm too lazy to read all of that so I'll listen to it during my lunch break.

I've never noticed the transcripts before. I'll have to check on it. I usually listen to that show each week on my day off while I am doing stuff around the house. It's almost always very interesting.


Try go into the link on the site for "our favorites" and listen to a couple of those. You'll be hooked.
 
Back
Top