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British inventor seeks to take $18B bite out of Apple in bitter patent war
- Aerbil313 3y agoWhat exactly is in the patent? A broad description of iTunes’ functions or what? The article doesn’t mention.
- saintlunaire 3y agoThis article [1] I found from 2017 goes into a tiny bit more detail: Smartflash was founded in 2000 by inventor Patrick Racz, who obtained several patents on a system for storing data like songs, videos and games and accessing that data through electronic payments systems. Racz was unable to commercialize the technology and Smartflash sells no products of its own. And then on the connection with Apple: Smartflash’s complaint alleged that Racz has discussed his ideas in 2000 with a technologist who later became a senior director at Apple. The Guardian however states: But in the fallout from 9/11 and the dotcom crash, Spears and Gemplus pulled out, and Racz says in court that Gemplus – also a partner to Apple – then claimed the product as its own. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1685D5/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1685D5/
- jbverschoor 3y agoSpears here is Britney Spears, who signed up as brand ambassador.
- Salgat 3y agoSounds like things that had no business being patented.
- jbverschoor 3y agoActually a very detailed description, including the depiction of an iPod as the device, of iTunes / what later became the App Store.
- jlund-molfese 3y agoA detailed overview of the allegedly infringed upon patents can be found at http://patentlyo.com/media/2015/02/6-13-cv-00447-JRG-KNM-423-PRIMARY-DOCUMENT.pdf http://patentlyo.com/media/2015/02/6-13-cv-00447-JRG-KNM-423... And then to view the patents themselves, Google has a pretty good site where you can enter US patent numbers, like https://patents.google.com/patent/US7334720B2/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US7334720B2/en
- us0r 3y agoKnowing nothing about patents and only briefly scrolling through this... wouldn't porn be prior art? Pay for access to content?
- hnburnsy 3y agoBy virtue of filing in Tyler Texas makes you a patent troll in my eyes.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoI feel icky just having been dragged there once as a child.
- ametrau 3y agoThe patent office or Texas in general?
- pipeline_peak 3y ago>”I lost everything. I had young children. I was embarrassed” Are you trying to feel that way again?
- pipeline_peak 3y agoWhy does The Guardian insist on putting Betsy Reed‘s emotionless face on every American article?
- zenapollo 3y agoBased on hearing of Apple’s price gouging behavior for their App Store, especially their poopy-baby response to losing IAP rules in the Epic lawsuit, I would be pleased if he won. Additionally this might be a good opportunity to donate to a F Apple campaign by donating to this guys legal battle. Just to send the message.
- JaceLightning 3y agoHe tried to patent.... the store... the digital store...
- nijave 3y agoSeems like the idea's been around a while https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_store https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_store