Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Zdigital2015

macrumors 601
Jul 14, 2015
4,042
5,425
East Coast, United States
This is getting crazy.

I’m sided with Apple on this one. The tech world is becoming a mine field. In my view companies that own patents and build nothing with it for commercial purposes for over a period of time, say 2 years, it should be automatically voided and become public domain.
Or at least be legally bound to offer them with FRAND terms instead of weaponizing them to pursue a legal payday.
 

GuruZac

macrumors 68040
Sep 9, 2015
3,616
11,504
⛰️🏕️🏔️
67m and apparently it's 60/40 split of Android/iPhone. about 26.8m people have an iOS device.

and yeah i don't want apple to leave but if they did i'd just keep my Windows PC and go back to Samsung.
Off topic but Samsung hardware may get more interesting as their phones will begin using AMD chips beginning this year. Samsung needs to dump Android and develop a real iOS alternative.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pratikindia

darkcompass

macrumors regular
Aug 22, 2018
239
313
With the apple/google store monopoly going through the courts, and them saying they want competition, and if Apple decide to bow out of the UK Market with this bs, we would have one OS, android, which is a .... monopoly.

Companies, Governments, and patent trolls all continue to gouge themselves, and ultimatly the consumer is left bleeding.
 

obamtl

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2010
555
864
Yeah right. Apple will leave the 5th largest economy in the world, one where they hold more than 50% of the smartphone market share, and their second largest services market just because of a patent troll. I'm ordinarily sympathetic to tech companies when it comes to patent trolls, but this threat is just not credible. Argue the legal case without the histrionics Apple.
 

Baumi

macrumors 6502
Mar 31, 2005
257
378
If these patent trolls are non-practicing, how do they exemplify their patents? The normal route forward for someone like Apple would be to show that the original patent is not valid and in many juridictions, failing to exemplify a patent is the way to get it thrown out.

Not a lawyer, but from my understanding, the validity of a patent doesn't hinge on the question whether the patent holder (or anyone else really) is actively using it or has designed a product that uses it. That wouldn't be a good idea, either. One of the original ideas of patents was that they allowed inventors without money to approach potential financial backers without being worried about having their idea stolen. So, the case of "I've got this great concept but I haven't yet built it" would be a perfectly valid way to use a patent.

The general way of defending yourself against a bad-faith patent lawsuit would be to show either that the patent doesn't cover your specific implementation or that the patent itself is either superseded by prior art (others had already done this before the patent was first filed) or too broad and unspecific to merit protection. (If we were still in the horse & buggy days, you couldn't patent the general idea of using mechanical means to power a vehicle, but you would be able to get a patent for a specific type of engine that you invented.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: ohio.emt

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,107
2,685
They have to posture... but even if they have to cough up $7 billion they're not leaving (plus they're still on the hook for the judgement if they do)

"Apple's position is it should indeed be able to reflect on the terms and decide whether commercially it is right to accept them"

Yeah, I'd like to try that in divorce court when it comes to alimony.
It’s actually about the terms of the licensing fees yet to be determined.
 

laptech

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2013
3,648
4,030
Earth
When companies abuse Apple's patent's, Apple go after them with everything they've got, take no prisoners but when Apple abuses the patents of others, they throw their toys out the pram and cry that it's not fair that are being told they have to pay for using someone elses patents.

One rule for Apple and one rule for everyone else.
 

weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,839
3,516
surely the judge will factor all this into the ruling? apple leaving would be a blow to the country but hey that's all we seem to be doing the last few years so i wouldn't be surprised if this backwards ass country shot itself in the foot (again).
The judge will rightly ignore all that. Judges are solely concerned with applying the law as it stands. They are not responsible for ensuring full employment of the populace.
 

HQuest

macrumors regular
Jan 10, 2012
187
538
Everybody complaining they are entitled to a bigger slice of the cake are out of their minds and in pure greed. Do they want more? Sure, go ahead and put your own hardware out to market; then dump your application on it. Support it, make it friendly, keep it updated and prove you are up for “fair competition” as you keep asking on courts worldwide.

Oh wait, they can’t. They only have a piece of paper with “an idea”. At best, they jumped into the bandwagon of a product they were incapable to create. Unsurprisingly enough, I don’t see Google or Microsoft going after Apple on court. Maybe they know this isn’t as easy as going to court claiming “entitlement”. Go figure…

Since iOS 1.0, I have everything I needed on my phone. And I regret nothing.

TL;DR: post #69. Nice.
 
Last edited:

Adoniram

macrumors regular
Aug 7, 2016
161
353
Fort Worth, TX
Is Apple's tax haven in Northern Ireland (part of UK), or Republic of Ireland (not part of UK)? That would also lend credibility to any claims of pulling out.
 

Premium1

macrumors 65816
Jan 26, 2013
1,448
1,709
Lol! There's no way they'll abandon a market of nearly 70,000,000 people! If they do, there are alternatives.
If anything people would just buy from one of the surrounding countries and import them. Also if you piss off enough people they will complain to their politicians and maybe something will change.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.