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Apple is starting it's own GPU production. They immediately were sued by their former suppliers Imagination Technology over intellectual property rights. The ga

by danjoc 9y ago

Apple is starting it's own GPU production. They immediately were sued by their former suppliers Imagination Technology over intellectual property rights. The gall of them. Nevermind that Apple has yet to produce anything, Imagination is suing them on the premise that it is impossible for Apple to build a GPU without infringing their rights, somehow. Apple may win in the end, it's capital vs capital. A small startup trying to steal away that Apple contract from Imagination with a innovative incredible product though; They'd be properly crushed into dust for even dreaming about it.

DominikD 9y ago
This is absolutely not what happened and a completely flawed analogy. One: there's talks, not lawsuit. Two: Apple claims it did clean room implementation w/o providing any proof. Apple could hire a third party to assess that w/o any risk of leaking anything to Imagination but decided not to. Because they're Apple and they can. Three: they have the upper hand here in terms of monies that they can spend. So it's not like they're this small boy strongarmed by a bully.
- danjoc 9y ago
  >So it's not like they're this small boy strongarmed by a bully. I agree with all three of your points. Let me take a different tack to see if this makes my point more clear. Apple sued Samsung over rounded corners. The gall of them. As if anyone can own the concept of rounded corners. Apple shouldn't be allowed to prevent other companies from building phones with rounded corner designs. Imagination shouldn't be allowed to prevent other companies from building phones with GPU designs. Clearly, both things happen. There are lots of phones now with rounded corners. Lots of phones with GPUs. But well placed litigation can hobble your nearest competitor or destroy a small one. The result is massive losses of productivity that could have enriched society. All this thanks to the Capitalist idea that someone can own rounded corners or GPU designs simply because they have the most money. Capitalism rewards those with capital, not those who work hard and add value to society. Those two things are not mutually exclusive, but contributing to society is not a requirement and frequently does not occur. Theoretically, a single super capitalist or small group of them could corner the market on everything and be rewarded for no other reason beyond ownership. Together, they could stop all progress. With companies like Apple sitting on $200,000,000,000 overseas, but failing to ship a new "pro" desktop since 4 years ago, this theoretical situation looks a lot more real every day.
angus-prune 9y ago
Apple have also hired many senior Imagination engineers and employees over the last few years. From Imagination's perspective, rather than changing to different technology, Apple are trying to reimplement Imagination's technology, with ex-Imagination engineers, without paying them. Whether Imagination are right about this or not, I don't think this is a clear cut case of patent bullying.

by danjoc 9y ago

DominikD 9y ago

This is absolutely not what happened and a completely flawed analogy. One: there's talks, not lawsuit. Two: Apple claims it did clean room implementation w/o providing any proof. Apple could hire a third party to assess that w/o any risk of leaking anything to Imagination but decided not to. Because they're Apple and they can. Three: they have the upper hand here in terms of monies that they can spend. So it's not like they're this small boy strongarmed by a bully.

danjoc 9y ago
>So it's not like they're this small boy strongarmed by a bully. I agree with all three of your points. Let me take a different tack to see if this makes my point more clear. Apple sued Samsung over rounded corners. The gall of them. As if anyone can own the concept of rounded corners. Apple shouldn't be allowed to prevent other companies from building phones with rounded corner designs. Imagination shouldn't be allowed to prevent other companies from building phones with GPU designs. Clearly, both things happen. There are lots of phones now with rounded corners. Lots of phones with GPUs. But well placed litigation can hobble your nearest competitor or destroy a small one. The result is massive losses of productivity that could have enriched society. All this thanks to the Capitalist idea that someone can own rounded corners or GPU designs simply because they have the most money. Capitalism rewards those with capital, not those who work hard and add value to society. Those two things are not mutually exclusive, but contributing to society is not a requirement and frequently does not occur. Theoretically, a single super capitalist or small group of them could corner the market on everything and be rewarded for no other reason beyond ownership. Together, they could stop all progress. With companies like Apple sitting on $200,000,000,000 overseas, but failing to ship a new "pro" desktop since 4 years ago, this theoretical situation looks a lot more real every day.

angus-prune 9y ago

Apple have also hired many senior Imagination engineers and employees over the last few years. From Imagination's perspective, rather than changing to different technology, Apple are trying to reimplement Imagination's technology, with ex-Imagination engineers, without paying them. Whether Imagination are right about this or not, I don't think this is a clear cut case of patent bullying.