Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Threatens to Leave UK Market Due to $7 Billion Patent Dispute
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Ahh, I see. It's your determination of my intent that counts for property rights. Thanks, look forward to seeing the actual statute.
If my invention just takes an additional billion dollars to commercialize, do you get to own it if I'm having to take all my legally awarded limited monopoly time to find that partner? Do I have a right to sell or license my invention in the meantime? Yes I do, just like any other property I own. If I sell it to someone else do they have the right to use or profit from the invention they now own? Yes they do, just like that or all of the patents they may have purchased or licensed with the rights to do so.
Others opinions that they don't have to wait for the patent to expire, or they just wanna use it because reasons is nonsense. Buy it, license it, or invent around it. It's done all the time everywhere in the world.
If they “come to exact same solution independently” as I did in my patent but after a patent with timing priority is granted to me, they have to pay me or anybody I assign or sell it to.
it’s about timing priority of disclosure of invention.
You don’t seem to know much about the patent field works.
Just ask Elisha Gray.
This is what Apple can do for UK customers. Simply exit the market and create more infrastructure in nearby countries. Apple doesn't have official presence in my country (only official distributor), but they set up 3 Apple stores in a nearby country where most of its tourists are people from my country. The only caveat is covid, preventing most air travels.
yours is a strawman argument that demonstrates ignorance of how patents work.
what anybody does with their patent income is irrelevant. That’s a full strawman not worthy of more words.
what is relevant is that the patent is disclosed to benefit society.
Such disclosure leads to many other minds either applying (exclusive use or licensing), advancing (ancillary patents) or finding alternative solutions (new patents) to the same problem.
Each of these potentially benefits society. The reward for sharing this creativity is an exclusive ownership right for a fixed period of time.
As an item of property that right can be monitored directly or sold on for another party to do as long as the patent is valid, applicable and not expired.
Well, that's not how it works.
Apple devices will still work. It's just that for future purchases and support, a Britton will have to go to, let's say Ireland., or import them online. There are plenty of Apple users in countries where Apple is not present.
Well it’s more than that actually.
It could be signaling to other countries that might do the same thing.
But that’s only theory. Because apple’s not going to pull out of markets because if you aren’t in markets you are out of business. (This is not to say that one has to be in every market but if one is leaving big markets with long term profits one is also leaving those profits to one’s competitors which also makes them stronger in all the markets you do remain in.)
That may be true but it wouldn't apply to lawyers in a courtroom.
Powerful lawyers in a courtroom don't make statements, they say plausible suppositions to try to win cases.
The exec management at Apple is unlikely to have read over legal briefs and ok'd it. They probably are finding out about the "exit UK market" supposition when it was reported in the corporate media.
Interesting rant for sure. I suggest that you take time to fully understand the actual history of the events, rather than what you think you know, or what you’ve been led to believe. It was actually the British that stopped the global slave trade. They were the first nation in the world to make it illegal to own a slave and even used the Royal Navy to enforce this policy on the world.
Start here:
Last edited:
I suggested some months or weeks ago that Apple as a business could opt for shutting off app developer access to their products and screen for only selected dev teams for third party app development and services ala Apple Arcade if all these anticompetitive lawsuits and nonsense continued... but them opting out of a country, wow! Didn't see that coming!
I don't see how anyone can call them a patent troll. They made a technology or patented it and are just doing what needs to be done.... Trust me if Apple had certain patents and the were infringed upon they would sue too. And if you think anything different your clueless. They protect their patents that is why people patent things. Apple would be the same way.
James
James
The problem is that these patent trolls didn't invent anything. They are usually third parties that bought the patent, so they didn't even do the first part.
Some years ago I developed an idea in the medical area (related to sleep equipment like cpaps) and was able to obtain a "provisional patent" from the Patent Office for $100.00, plus the cost of the software to ensure it was in the proper format. The "provisional" aspect gives you 1 year's protection, allowed me to work with the first company on my list and to move towards a normal patent, which is far more expensive. A grand approach for a "normal person" without grand wealth.
Unfortunately my better half received a Dx of leukemia and headed to the hospital for a month of chemo - the first of 20 months total - and my attention was somewhere more important than the provisional patent so it 'passed".
While this leads me to be sensitive to legitimate patent holders it does exclude trolls.
My preference would be to offer the troll's law firm $1 billion plus 20% commission (the lawyer's term for commission is contingency fees, but it's just like a commission) and leave it to them to "push" their client. That money would cover all past, present and future cascades and would also cover any sales from one troll to another to "shift" the risk of Apple to anyone else.
As for for judges, they may not be elected but they cans be humiliated in public - like being expelled from their favorite "clubs" or ridiculed in public. They might also find it difficult to argue why they have standing in other countries after the BRITEX completion.
Apple might even find other countries that would be happy to rule in their favor on the lawsuit plus rejecting the patent application. If the troll doesn't have the cash it will be hard for them to legally defend the hundred's of lawsuits from around the world.
Unfortunately my better half received a Dx of leukemia and headed to the hospital for a month of chemo - the first of 20 months total - and my attention was somewhere more important than the provisional patent so it 'passed".
While this leads me to be sensitive to legitimate patent holders it does exclude trolls.
My preference would be to offer the troll's law firm $1 billion plus 20% commission (the lawyer's term for commission is contingency fees, but it's just like a commission) and leave it to them to "push" their client. That money would cover all past, present and future cascades and would also cover any sales from one troll to another to "shift" the risk of Apple to anyone else.
As for for judges, they may not be elected but they cans be humiliated in public - like being expelled from their favorite "clubs" or ridiculed in public. They might also find it difficult to argue why they have standing in other countries after the BRITEX completion.
Apple might even find other countries that would be happy to rule in their favor on the lawsuit plus rejecting the patent application. If the troll doesn't have the cash it will be hard for them to legally defend the hundred's of lawsuits from around the world.
It’s almost like the UK gov’t is searching for creative new ways to alienate Scotland, N Ireland, and Wales into leaving.
It is about patent trolls getting award ******** things that anyone can up with. And when someone comes up with the same thing, they demand billions.
As a result of these trolls, the society has to pay far higher prices, for a bunch patent trolls who contribute nothing and are just leeching from the system.
The rules need to change.
And Apple is right. It is better to leave the UK than being trolled by the patent system.
Last edited:
So what if Apple makes things. But Apple does not make everything, this surely means that some patents they hold are either not being used and possibly never will be.
You can't have it both ways, if they have a patent they have no intention of using does that make you a troll?
I make electrical goods, if I hold a patent for something not connected to my industry for no reason or for something in my industry that I have no intention of making, am I a troll?
I'm not sure your post makes his/hers wrong?
If I start something and destroy it, me fixing it doesn't make me right.
It is absurd that the British judge thinks that a UK judge can determine the global rates. What if an Irish judge issued a different rate, and a Canadian judge issues his/her own?
The way the patent system currently works is reality and companies must work within that system and applicable laws. If said system is deemed to be unfair, lacking sense, and detrimental to the furthering of tech innovation and production, those who want change should get their lobbying resources and efforts in gear and get the change ball rolling. Until the system is legally changed, follow the rules.
Not profits, but net contribution, since profits include absorbed overhead. So it would be less than 15 years.