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It's amusing that when there is a ruling in HTC's favor the headline is: "Judge Finds Apple in Violation of HTC's Newly Acquired Patents"...but when there was a

by GHFigs 15y ago

It's amusing that when there is a ruling in HTC's favor the headline is: "Judge Finds Apple in Violation of HTC's Newly Acquired Patents"...but when there was a ruling in Apple's favor it was: "Apple's Plot to Kill Top Android Maker HTC Nears Fruition With Win" The latter being illustrated with a picture of Steve Jobs as the Emperor from Star Wars. Classy.

sek 15y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
jonknee 15y ago
Perhaps because it's defensive? If HTC struck first and tried to kill the iPhone, I'd wager the headlines would have been reversed.
- willyt 15y ago
  But it's not defensive if they acted in bad faith to begin with. The billboard adds for htc phones looked like ad's for iPhones until you got close enough to read the copy. The implication being 'an iPhone, but cheaper'. I have no problem with someone coming up with something better, but I was surprised that they were able to get away with something so clearly mimicking the look and feel of an iPhone.
  - jonknee 15y ago
    Billboard ads have nothing to do with patents. Neither does the look and feel.
    - willyt 15y ago
      Sorry. My original argument wasn't very clear, I didn't mean to argue that the look and feel is patentable. It's not, obvioisly. I suppose what I meant that I could imagine Steve Jobs seeing an advert like that, picking up the phone to the lawyers and saying 'what can we do about this' and these various patent suits are the result. I am not arguing for this use as a justification for software patents, just making an observation that HTC don't have 'clean hands' in the greater scheme of things.
      - jonknee 15y ago
        What adverts are you speaking of? I don't recall seeing an HTC phone that blatantly ripped off the iPhone's design (and actually HTC had been doing touch based phones since before Apple, see the HTC’s Touch P3450 for an example).
        willyt 15y ago
        The particular ones I remember were Bus shelter ads in the UK about a year ago. I think I might have made a mistake and be thinking of ads for a Samsung phone. From a distance, with the specific app grid layout and general colour distribution in the image they looked a lot like iPhones. See the image in this article: http://mynokiablog.com/2011/04/19/itc-staff-recommends-siding-with-nokia-htc-in-apple-case/ http://mynokiablog.com/2011/04/19/itc-staff-recommends-sidin... PS I haven't read the article, just found the image on google image search.
Pewpewarrows 15y ago
As others have noted, it's because Apple decided to get their hands dirty first claiming intellectual property with ridiculously broad patents. In that sense HTC is being perceived as defending itself to the bully on the playground by throwing back punches.
- Steko 15y ago
  First, HTC didn't even have these patents until recently. Second, Android clearly went with a strategy of cloning the iPhone, of course Apple struck first. Is Apple the bad guy for also wanting to close the fake Apple stores in China? The question isn't who struck first, the question is whether each parties patents are valid or not and whether they are infringed or not. Defending poor journalism doesn't get us closer to that.
  - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
    If you think that Android devices are just clones of the iPhone, and that it gives Apple just cause to strike first, I'm not even going to bother writing a real response.
    - Steko 15y ago
      Trust me, you didn't. Android is not "just a clone" but it's clear that they decided to aggressively clone the iphone's features. If you don't think that's obvious, you missed what Android looked like 6 months before the iphone debut and 6 months after. Now whether those features are protectable as IP or not is another matter but if they are it's no surprise that Apple would want to enforce such protections.
      - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
        Aggressively clone as in...? A top statusbar? A touchscreen? A virtual keyboard? A grid layout of applications? Custom applications? Hate to break it to you, but iOS wasn't the first to do any of those, Android included most of them before the iPhone announcement (from the little that we know of its development at Google beginning in 2005), and the first Android phone (G1) didn't resemble the iPhone more than any other smartphone on the market. Most people that I knew were comparing it to the Sidekick when it first released.
kelnos 15y ago
Whoever claimed tech journalism was unbiased?
- GHFigs 15y ago
  Certainly not I. But there is a line somewhere between "biased reporting" and "juvenile pandering" that I keep seeing sites prance back and forth over, perennially indecisive about whether they want to be real grown-up news or not, to the detriment of the whole enterprise.
  - kelnos 15y ago
    Agreed, to a certain extent, though I'm not sure that I'd go so far as to call it juvenile. All news outlets have an agenda. Some try harder than others to keep that agenda out of their headlines. Others... don't. I'm not saying it's great, but it's to be expected, I think. While I wouldn't really call HTC an "underdog" in the normal sense of the term, painting them as such in a fight against Apple isn't totally off-base.
    - GHFigs 15y ago
      Fair enough, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that painting Steve Jobs as shooting lightning from his fingertips is a little on the juvenile side.
      - kelnos 15y ago
        Ok, yeah, you've got me there ;)
      - nitrogen 15y ago
        Juvenile photographic compositions combining TV/movie references and controversial industry celebrities are a time-honored tradition of geek culture :). For example, it simply wouldn't do if nobody ever turned a picture of Bill Gates into a Borg drone.

by GHFigs 15y ago

sek 15y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism

jonknee 15y ago

Perhaps because it's defensive? If HTC struck first and tried to kill the iPhone, I'd wager the headlines would have been reversed.

willyt 15y ago
But it's not defensive if they acted in bad faith to begin with. The billboard adds for htc phones looked like ad's for iPhones until you got close enough to read the copy. The implication being 'an iPhone, but cheaper'. I have no problem with someone coming up with something better, but I was surprised that they were able to get away with something so clearly mimicking the look and feel of an iPhone.
- jonknee 15y ago
  Billboard ads have nothing to do with patents. Neither does the look and feel.
  - willyt 15y ago
    Sorry. My original argument wasn't very clear, I didn't mean to argue that the look and feel is patentable. It's not, obvioisly. I suppose what I meant that I could imagine Steve Jobs seeing an advert like that, picking up the phone to the lawyers and saying 'what can we do about this' and these various patent suits are the result. I am not arguing for this use as a justification for software patents, just making an observation that HTC don't have 'clean hands' in the greater scheme of things.
    - jonknee 15y ago
      What adverts are you speaking of? I don't recall seeing an HTC phone that blatantly ripped off the iPhone's design (and actually HTC had been doing touch based phones since before Apple, see the HTC’s Touch P3450 for an example).
      - willyt 15y ago
        The particular ones I remember were Bus shelter ads in the UK about a year ago. I think I might have made a mistake and be thinking of ads for a Samsung phone. From a distance, with the specific app grid layout and general colour distribution in the image they looked a lot like iPhones. See the image in this article: http://mynokiablog.com/2011/04/19/itc-staff-recommends-siding-with-nokia-htc-in-apple-case/ http://mynokiablog.com/2011/04/19/itc-staff-recommends-sidin... PS I haven't read the article, just found the image on google image search.

Pewpewarrows 15y ago

As others have noted, it's because Apple decided to get their hands dirty first claiming intellectual property with ridiculously broad patents. In that sense HTC is being perceived as defending itself to the bully on the playground by throwing back punches.

Steko 15y ago
First, HTC didn't even have these patents until recently. Second, Android clearly went with a strategy of cloning the iPhone, of course Apple struck first. Is Apple the bad guy for also wanting to close the fake Apple stores in China? The question isn't who struck first, the question is whether each parties patents are valid or not and whether they are infringed or not. Defending poor journalism doesn't get us closer to that.
- Pewpewarrows 15y ago
  If you think that Android devices are just clones of the iPhone, and that it gives Apple just cause to strike first, I'm not even going to bother writing a real response.
  - Steko 15y ago
    Trust me, you didn't. Android is not "just a clone" but it's clear that they decided to aggressively clone the iphone's features. If you don't think that's obvious, you missed what Android looked like 6 months before the iphone debut and 6 months after. Now whether those features are protectable as IP or not is another matter but if they are it's no surprise that Apple would want to enforce such protections.
    - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
      Aggressively clone as in...? A top statusbar? A touchscreen? A virtual keyboard? A grid layout of applications? Custom applications? Hate to break it to you, but iOS wasn't the first to do any of those, Android included most of them before the iPhone announcement (from the little that we know of its development at Google beginning in 2005), and the first Android phone (G1) didn't resemble the iPhone more than any other smartphone on the market. Most people that I knew were comparing it to the Sidekick when it first released.

kelnos 15y ago

Whoever claimed tech journalism was unbiased?

GHFigs 15y ago
Certainly not I. But there is a line somewhere between "biased reporting" and "juvenile pandering" that I keep seeing sites prance back and forth over, perennially indecisive about whether they want to be real grown-up news or not, to the detriment of the whole enterprise.
- kelnos 15y ago
  Agreed, to a certain extent, though I'm not sure that I'd go so far as to call it juvenile. All news outlets have an agenda. Some try harder than others to keep that agenda out of their headlines. Others... don't. I'm not saying it's great, but it's to be expected, I think. While I wouldn't really call HTC an "underdog" in the normal sense of the term, painting them as such in a fight against Apple isn't totally off-base.
  - GHFigs 15y ago
    Fair enough, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that painting Steve Jobs as shooting lightning from his fingertips is a little on the juvenile side.
    - kelnos 15y ago
      Ok, yeah, you've got me there ;)
    - nitrogen 15y ago
      Juvenile photographic compositions combining TV/movie references and controversial industry celebrities are a time-honored tradition of geek culture :). For example, it simply wouldn't do if nobody ever turned a picture of Bill Gates into a Borg drone.