It is anybody’s guess as to where the conflict goes from here, but make no mistake that it is hair trigger away from going nuclear with lawyers, injunctions and an endless string of appeals.
As a note, Ars Technica confirmed that one of the patents cited by Apple today is indeed multi-touch.
This whole thing is amusing, though, because the timing is absurdly conspicuous: "OH SHIT, ANDROID AND HTC ARE GETTING POPULAR. LET'S SUE THEM AND IGNORE THE INSIGNIFICANT PALM CORP. WHICH ALSO HAS MULTI-TOUCH, BUT ISN'T A THREAT TO US IN THE SLIGHTEST."
The idea of patenting multi-touch is (if you'll pardon the pun) patently ridiculous, since essentially every touch sensor made has the ability to detect multiple touches. It's more software/programming patents which are (mostly) just utterly stupid.
The more amusing point is that they're suing only HTC - not all Android handset makers, not Google, not Palm... they're picking on the OEM because they don't have their own patents to fight back with.
Fuck Apple and software patents. Nothing will stop me from buying the HTC Desire when it comes out.
I've seen this coming for sooooo long. I didn't expect Apple to go after the handset manufacturer though, I figured they would go after the OHA since their patent is (iirc) a software patent, not a hardware patent. Then again, I could be wrong and IANAL
As an Apple user, I have to say, Apple are really starting to annoy me with their bullying of customers and competitors. Seriously, this is nothing more then a childish "Moooooom! They're copying me!" situation.
Thrax
🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
Comments
As a note, Ars Technica confirmed that one of the patents cited by Apple today is indeed multi-touch.
This whole thing is amusing, though, because the timing is absurdly conspicuous: "OH SHIT, ANDROID AND HTC ARE GETTING POPULAR. LET'S SUE THEM AND IGNORE THE INSIGNIFICANT PALM CORP. WHICH ALSO HAS MULTI-TOUCH, BUT ISN'T A THREAT TO US IN THE SLIGHTEST."
Fuck Apple and software patents. Nothing will stop me from buying the HTC Desire when it comes out.
palm - WIN
:P lol. I love my pre.