Motorola makes Apple pull iPads & iPhones in Germany

[TeaLeaf]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16871075

Interesting developments in the patent wars.  iCloud is also at risk according to the BBC article.

Motorola are of course now owned by Google.

[TeaLeaf]

....and shortly afterwards, Apple made an offer of a licence payment to Motorola, so the interim sale ban was lifted to allow discussions to continue.

iCloud is still at risk and not part of the licence payment offer.

Better than soap this is.....I'm getting some popcorn and sitting back to enjoy!

[smilodon]

It's all fun to watch I agree.

Seems our very own BT have had another go at milking money from highly dubious patents. Like the debacle of the ridiculous claim they made several years ago that they owned the rights to the hyper-link, it's more than likely that they will get nowhere. Even so they seem to believe that the idea of revealing more detail as you zoom into a map is something they invented? They also claim to have have the fantastic idea that users should be able to decide not to download large files over a 3G network but to wait till they connect to a WiFi network. Clearly this sort of innovation would have taken their R&D department years and millions of pounds to think up. Not like they've just discovered the concept of being a Patent Troll.

What really amazes me though is that they have gone straight for Google and sued them in the USA! Talk about giving away the home advantage. Even Apple didn't have the guts to go for the big G but rather went after smaller OEM's. Lets see how much of their share holders money they flush away with this one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16243414

[T-Bag]

Technology that is easily replicated in an afternoon from scratch should no be patent-able. The not downloading large files is a prefect example. Yes it's a nice idea, but it's not cost you any money to develop it. Same with pinch zoom. It's all well and good you watched Minority report and thought it would be nice to patent something that millions of other people have thought of, but does getting to the patent office first really protect the company or the public? No.

I understand that it would be annoying to release a cutting edge platform one day and have it exactly recoded to another platform the following week, but if your only features are things that can be replicated in a week or two what have you lost? A few man hours.

Patents are having the exact opposite effect than they were designed for. It was originally to stop a big company pinching the ideas of a smaller company and using their lager resources to make their version more popular. Now it's large companies buying up the small companies patents and using them to try and prevent legitimate competitors from occupying the same market space as them, which is wrong.
Hiring lawyers to prevent competition is far worse for the consumer than hiring designers to make a better product that people prefer to the competition.

[Snokio]

have to agree, it's getting a bit tedious as there is soo many law suits going on.

Why is it always in Germany? and what happened to the Samsung coping Apple fiasco?

[Luminance]

Technology that is easily replicated in an afternoon from scratch should no be patent-able. The not downloading large files is a prefect example. Yes it's a nice idea, but it's not cost you any money to develop it. Same with pinch zoom. It's all well and good you watched Minority report and thought it would be nice to patent something that millions of other people have thought of, but does getting to the patent office first really protect the company or the public? No.

I understand that it would be annoying to release a cutting edge platform one day and have it exactly recoded to another platform the following week, but if your only features are things that can be replicated in a week or two what have you lost? A few man hours.

Patents are having the exact opposite effect than they were designed for. It was originally to stop a big company pinching the ideas of a smaller company and using their lager resources to make their version more popular. Now it's large companies buying up the small companies patents and using them to try and prevent legitimate competitors from occupying the same market space as them, which is wrong.
Hiring lawyers to prevent competition is far worse for the consumer than hiring designers to make a better product that people prefer to the competition.

Well said there.