5 ms·

The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedo

by smiler 16y ago

The article only looks at it from the 'Apple is evil' perspective. I wonder if Apple are patenting these purely so that others can't and thereby allowing freedom for developers to develop these apps without worrying about patent infringement

chc 16y ago
Given Apple's suits against HTC for using Android, I see no good reason to give them the benefit of the doubt like that.
smokinn 16y ago
Right. Because Apple never capriciously brings down the hammer on the small guy.
- smiler 16y ago
  I'm not saying that either way - I was just pointing out the alternative. Until Apple state their intentions we won't know either way will we?
  - nihilocrat 16y ago
    We can extrapolate their intentions based on their history of actions, just like you can with real people or any other corporation / group of people. We can't predict with 100% veracity but we can have an educated expectation. Still, I'm more saddened by the fact that if Apple didn't do this, patent trolls probably would, so taking a stance here is a matter of picking a lesser evil.
  - Tamerlin 16y ago
    You should probably start by looking at Apple's history, which suggests that the alternative isn't likely.
char 16y ago
I'm looking at this from the "ANYONE who tries to patent generic ideas is evil" perspective.
- timr 16y ago
  No offense, but that's not a very nuanced or useful way to think about the situation. It's the same line of thinking that makes 16-year-old kids declare that they'll never work for The Man. Idealistic and perhaps admirable, but not very practical. Opposing any individual player in a game for acting in their own rational best interest is dumb. If a big company with good products didn't act defensively in these situations, they'd be eaten alive by patent trolls who have no such qualms. Until the laws are changed, these kinds of patents are a necessary evil.
  - gbhn 16y ago
    A complication with patent trolls is that they're immune to defensive patents: they don't practice, so they can't be countersued or bargained with. I think you probably mean "other companies that develop mobile apps." In this case, especially in the context of the direct copy of the TapTapTap app as shown above, it looks like this means "our own developers."
- lol 16y ago
  There's a difference between a defensive and an offensive patent portfolio. The fact that you choose not only to ignore it, but to declare holders of them 'evil' shows that you're a child. The fact that you got upvoted is a reminder that HN has turned into an utterly worthless shithole. No intelligent person would write or upvote your comment. Soon the unaccomplished wantrepreneurial morons like you will drive the real users from this site.
- mgrouchy 16y ago
  I think we are getting pretty cavalier with the word evil these days, its not like apple is killing babies here. I'm not saying its right, but evil?
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
notahacker 16y ago
Alternatively they could allow freedom for developers on their own platform whilst aggressively pushing for licencing fees from rival platform providers. Bearing in mind their lawsuits against HTC for the alleged violation of broad and trivial patents I can't see why anyone would expect them to use it purely defensively
krschultz 16y ago
What if Apple skips sueing the guys on their own platform but does sue the guys making apps like this for Android? Thats more worrisome to me than the prospect of Apple using them against iPhone developers, which is probably something they would never do.
- biafra 16y ago
  They probably won't sue ios developers over this, since they can easily block their apps.
dedward 16y ago
That, and in the current business climate, and the way the US patent system works, they pretty much have to do this - it's just good business strategy. If they don't patent it, someone else will, and will go after apple for buckets of cash. In general, it's just a patent cold-war style arms race between large companies - they all keep huge patent portfolios so they all don't bother suing each other for patent infringement, because they're pretty much guaranteed to be infringing on a bunch of each other's patents - it creates a legal situation that neither party wants to get involved with in the first place.

by smiler 16y ago

chc 16y ago

Given Apple's suits against HTC for using Android, I see no good reason to give them the benefit of the doubt like that.

smokinn 16y ago

Right. Because Apple never capriciously brings down the hammer on the small guy.

smiler 16y ago
I'm not saying that either way - I was just pointing out the alternative. Until Apple state their intentions we won't know either way will we?
- nihilocrat 16y ago
  We can extrapolate their intentions based on their history of actions, just like you can with real people or any other corporation / group of people. We can't predict with 100% veracity but we can have an educated expectation. Still, I'm more saddened by the fact that if Apple didn't do this, patent trolls probably would, so taking a stance here is a matter of picking a lesser evil.
- Tamerlin 16y ago
  You should probably start by looking at Apple's history, which suggests that the alternative isn't likely.

char 16y ago

I'm looking at this from the "ANYONE who tries to patent generic ideas is evil" perspective.

timr 16y ago
No offense, but that's not a very nuanced or useful way to think about the situation. It's the same line of thinking that makes 16-year-old kids declare that they'll never work for The Man. Idealistic and perhaps admirable, but not very practical. Opposing any individual player in a game for acting in their own rational best interest is dumb. If a big company with good products didn't act defensively in these situations, they'd be eaten alive by patent trolls who have no such qualms. Until the laws are changed, these kinds of patents are a necessary evil.
- gbhn 16y ago
  A complication with patent trolls is that they're immune to defensive patents: they don't practice, so they can't be countersued or bargained with. I think you probably mean "other companies that develop mobile apps." In this case, especially in the context of the direct copy of the TapTapTap app as shown above, it looks like this means "our own developers."
lol 16y ago
There's a difference between a defensive and an offensive patent portfolio. The fact that you choose not only to ignore it, but to declare holders of them 'evil' shows that you're a child. The fact that you got upvoted is a reminder that HN has turned into an utterly worthless shithole. No intelligent person would write or upvote your comment. Soon the unaccomplished wantrepreneurial morons like you will drive the real users from this site.
mgrouchy 16y ago
I think we are getting pretty cavalier with the word evil these days, its not like apple is killing babies here. I'm not saying its right, but evil?

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

notahacker 16y ago

Alternatively they could allow freedom for developers on their own platform whilst aggressively pushing for licencing fees from rival platform providers. Bearing in mind their lawsuits against HTC for the alleged violation of broad and trivial patents I can't see why anyone would expect them to use it purely defensively

krschultz 16y ago

What if Apple skips sueing the guys on their own platform but does sue the guys making apps like this for Android? Thats more worrisome to me than the prospect of Apple using them against iPhone developers, which is probably something they would never do.

biafra 16y ago
They probably won't sue ios developers over this, since they can easily block their apps.

dedward 16y ago

That, and in the current business climate, and the way the US patent system works, they pretty much have to do this - it's just good business strategy. If they don't patent it, someone else will, and will go after apple for buckets of cash. In general, it's just a patent cold-war style arms race between large companies - they all keep huge patent portfolios so they all don't bother suing each other for patent infringement, because they're pretty much guaranteed to be infringing on a bunch of each other's patents - it creates a legal situation that neither party wants to get involved with in the first place.