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
“Unthinkable will become inevitable.”
UK is not immune to the problems(especially now) and Apple is well aware of that.
I'm not talking about making commercial products, I'm talking about having evidence in the patent that actually exemplifies the technology rather than just protecting it. If these people really are trolls then they possibly won't have spent the money doing the research to show that their invention actually works (i.e. 'reduced to practice'). If the patent doesn't exemplify then it is not valid.
$7 billion is such a large fee that attempted enforcement of it would cause any business to strongly consider pulling out, looking at figures other commenters have posted, it doesn’t look like the UK is worth $7 billion to Apple.
Of course, if the judge really thinks he can make any demand of Apple, that’s just extortion under colo(u)r of law. Is there any precedent for the damages the judge seems to be seeking? And is there some sort of conflict of interest on the part of the judge that really should have caused him to recuse himself? If not to the first and/or if yes to the latter, this judge ought to be investigated for ethics violations.
It's almost like one lot invaded the other and people just can't get over it...
That is good, except when the judges are kowtowing to patent trolls, and there's no recourse.
It find it difficult to feel any sympathy for apple as they are getting a bit of their own medicine. I seem to remember Apple sueing Samsung for copying the shape of their phone which they had patented. What goes around comes around. Apple is one of first to call in the lawyers.
Nah, there is a big difference between a fine and a damage payment. The first is punitive, the second is to restore the other party as if there has been no damage done. which is odd because the patent troll never had damage, just a shady business model.
My position on these matters are people and progress centric, not so much Apple or any other company.
The patent space is a mine field, mostly not productive, yet $$ and everyone with enough $$ is planting their mines.
The premises of the patent system is to protect intelectual property and production of whoever owns it. Yet, it became a scheme to charge production on whoever happens to step on it. In my opinion the patent system is being abused.
Last edited:
I think there’s at least some difference between a standards essential patent (an SEP) and something like your example of the Apple’s patent that they fought Samsung over. It’s not an essential feature of a smartphone that the phone’s corners have a particular radius, of course, while the argument here is that this firm claims a patent that’s required to even be able to implement 4G LTE service in a device. In other words, to make a smartphone of any sort (or a cellular Apple Watch or a cellular iPad), you have to pay this firm. These international patents are especially dicey, given that, of course, a judge only has authority in a single national jurisdiction, and what international patent protection and enforcement there is is a matter of treaty law, international law, contract law, etc. A far better approach, at least for essential patents, would be for forced participation in a global patent pool (held by the governing body of the standard) as a requirement for having your patent recognized as being SEP, and for non-participators to only be able to bring suits against the standard governing body if the accused violator is a member or licensee. (Basically, the standards body would additionally serve as global licensing and indemnity pools for the patents related to the standard.)
A lot of people in the tech space also make a distinction between firms that hold patents and pursue litigation based on their holdings but make actual products, especially products using those patents, and firms that hold patents and pursue legal action despite not making products. Furthermore, firms that only exist to buy patents and to pursue legal action on those patents are even more looked down upon by people in the tech space, these are called patent trolls.
Welp, looks like Jon Prosser has got hold of the story too. I wonder, if this news was to become mainstream in the UK (I haven't seen it on any mainstream news channels or outlets with exception of the Metro) would it have an impact on UK customers relationship with Apple and vice versa? Surely Apple don't want conversations not fit for the end user to be broadcast.
Software patents are far worse than this. There are a million ways to get to the same basic idea and if you make a patent so generic, even 1,000 different implementations of "Connecting to a remote server" can sometimes be found in violation of patents.
That‘s exactly the point, the slave trade was in full effect long before the British got there. Not only did they NOT start it, they were instrumental in ending it. All of that was explained in the video.
I am wondering if British also learned a concept of “having colonies” from the evil Russians?
Surely the British never started any colonies in some way, shape or form?
Not quite that simple I have read.
People made a lot of money off it (how many were suffered great ills and murdered for this?), fortunes were established, continuation facilitated, trade was massive (both in people and goods) and a lot of that provides the foundation for some family piles and companies and towns and cities today. The Royal Navy was also instrumental in maintaining and protecting it, as it was a means of projection of UK power. Rule Britannia and all that.
It did end (not immediately though, schemes kept people under the lash), far better it had never started with the UK involvement, but payments were made to owners for the losses they would incur when it was ended (not to the people that suffered). I understand some of those payments continued until recently (2015? Means my taxes have been funding slave owners families side I started paying taxes and nothing to the victims).
So yeah, we did end it, but it is not the rosy story many would have you think is my take away.
Are you missing the point that they played a massive negative role in it? (Along with PLENTY of additional global conquests that we are 'reaping the benefits of' to this day)?
It's obviously a simplification because thousands of years of history don't really fit in one line but from Edward to Cromwell it is certainly indicative of much of the relationship. It should not be a significant political factor in the modern world but if you want to look at support for sports teams you ignore nationalism at your peril.
All colonialism is obviously awful and shouldn't be defended but it is worth noting that England was forced into sailing the seas because the Vatican was urging Spain to invade it. The Catholic Church was desperate to get England under its control again. The only way to prevent that was to for England to expand its territory and break Rome's power.
Don't want to get too off topic and this thread seems to be doing exactly that but no.
England went everywhere. It was a little more than defending against Spain.