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Firstly, I have little to no experience in this field so all my arguments may mostly be gibberish. But, 1. Microsoft had initially asked for $15 per Android de
by mayanksinghal 14y ago
Firstly, I have little to no experience in this field so all my arguments may mostly be gibberish. But,
1. Microsoft had initially asked for $15 per Android device sold [1]. For some devices, this was as much as 7%. I am not sure how related these cases are. It seems as if it is hard to find if the involved patents [2] are FRAND.
2. The definition of fair is relative. I see less absurdity in 2.25% than you do, probably because of my biases. Given that some of these patents are primary to connectivity (wireless patents), their licencing to competitors (especially when competitors have charged upto 7% on your phones) is going to be high. In fact, it seems that Apple and Microsoft have an upper hand here.
3. And yes, Apple has asked for a ban on sales based on "Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system". In other threads, it was pointed out that not only was it obvious but prior art might be available. Now, I am not commenting on the validity of the patent, I am trying to see how such a feature about search interface becomes so paramount to the success of Samsung Galaxy Nexus device? And how will it cause irreparable damage to Apple, for that is what they have claimed? I don't see it at all. To me it is the least defensible argument of all.
4. Morality - it is a strange concept. Apple going all guns blazing over Android, was immoral to me. Worse was the case when Microsoft did so to much smaller OEMs. Apple is considered to be a pioneer in technology, and they have argued that Android is nothing but a copy of their designs. What it has also done is to patent the hell out of every design - moral or not (deliberately not seeing the obviousness of some of the patents also seem immoral to me). They used this against Android and they have every legal right to do so. And while they do so, they have copied some features from Android, Notification System is often given as the only example. I don't own an iPhone so I cannot comment on this. They could copy it because it was not patented. It makes it legal but not moral according to their own standards. Having double standards, is least moral to me.
[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/06/us-samsung-microsoft-idUSTRE7651DB20110706
[2] http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/070611-microsoft-android.html
Edit: Fixed reference