5 ms·

> Except it could hurt apple if HTC happens to also have a lot of nice little patents which the iPhone is infringing (not so far fetch). Or Google, should they

by dminor 17y ago

> Except it could hurt apple if HTC happens to also have a lot of nice little patents which the iPhone is infringing (not so far fetch). Or Google, should they decide to go on the offensive.

rbarooah 17y ago
I think the interesting point is that if HTC settles using either cross licensing some patent of their own, or by paying to license whichever of Apple's patents are upheld, the outcome will be to limit Android to those who can defend themselves similarly. This might actually be good for innovation. Android - strong as it is, is not a leap forward from the iPhone, but it's now the center of gravity for most people who need a mobile os to go on their touchscreen devices. If there was more incentive to develop a truly radical mobile ux on top of Linux, it might be better for all of us.
- joeyo 17y ago
  If any of this comes to pass, then the open-source aspect of android will become much more important: development will simply shift to countries that don't have software patents
  - protomyth 17y ago
    Well, some of the patents are hardware, and you still need to sell your device in countries that will recognize these patents to make it worth making. I expect a settlement out of this, there just seems to be something else going on that is behind closed doors. It just doesn't quite make sense how it is being reported.
    - joeyo 17y ago
      Well, some of the patents are hardware, and you still need to sell your device in countries that will recognize these patents to make it worth making. Sure, but as long as someone is selling the hardware (perhaps even licensing the appropriate patents) the hacker/end-user would still be able to compile and load software to make it all work. I expect a settlement too, if only because I can't imagine that HTC has enough money to invalidate all of the patents/show that they don't infringe on them.
      - protomyth 17y ago
        After the Kodak / Sun patent suit, I wouldn't count on HTC's ability to invalidate any of the patents. The power patent might be unavoidable.
- ajross 17y ago
  I'd say the Nexus One and Droid are leaps forward from the iPhone at least in terms of hardware capability. Remember that this is a suit against a hardware manufacturer, not the software developer. If Apple was confident of their devices' ability to outcompete HTC's in the market, they wouldn't have bothered to file this suit. They're suing because they are afraid of these things.

by dminor 17y ago

> Except it could hurt apple if HTC happens to also have a lot of nice little patents which the iPhone is infringing (not so far fetch). Or Google, should they decide to go on the offensive.

rbarooah 17y ago

I think the interesting point is that if HTC settles using either cross licensing some patent of their own, or by paying to license whichever of Apple's patents are upheld, the outcome will be to limit Android to those who can defend themselves similarly. This might actually be good for innovation. Android - strong as it is, is not a leap forward from the iPhone, but it's now the center of gravity for most people who need a mobile os to go on their touchscreen devices. If there was more incentive to develop a truly radical mobile ux on top of Linux, it might be better for all of us.

joeyo 17y ago
If any of this comes to pass, then the open-source aspect of android will become much more important: development will simply shift to countries that don't have software patents
- protomyth 17y ago
  Well, some of the patents are hardware, and you still need to sell your device in countries that will recognize these patents to make it worth making. I expect a settlement out of this, there just seems to be something else going on that is behind closed doors. It just doesn't quite make sense how it is being reported.
  - joeyo 17y ago
    Well, some of the patents are hardware, and you still need to sell your device in countries that will recognize these patents to make it worth making. Sure, but as long as someone is selling the hardware (perhaps even licensing the appropriate patents) the hacker/end-user would still be able to compile and load software to make it all work. I expect a settlement too, if only because I can't imagine that HTC has enough money to invalidate all of the patents/show that they don't infringe on them.
    - protomyth 17y ago
      After the Kodak / Sun patent suit, I wouldn't count on HTC's ability to invalidate any of the patents. The power patent might be unavoidable.
ajross 17y ago
I'd say the Nexus One and Droid are leaps forward from the iPhone at least in terms of hardware capability. Remember that this is a suit against a hardware manufacturer, not the software developer. If Apple was confident of their devices' ability to outcompete HTC's in the market, they wouldn't have bothered to file this suit. They're suing because they are afraid of these things.