8 replies to this topic

[Novek]

Apple has written history when it comes to making lawsuits, some has turned out in their favor, some not. Today we'll share some rather sad news, as this latest update may have a great impact on the android platform. In a federal litigation against Motorola a high-ranking US judge have agreed with Apples interpretation of their U.S. Patent No. 6,343,263, "real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data". Although this may sound like a hardware patent, it also refers to drivers and programs. It has to be stated that any suit hasn't had a ruling as of this. It's just a judges interpretation of a patent. However the patent in question will most likely be infringed by Android under this interpretation. Other patents which have been infringed by Android have proved to have quite easy workarounds, but this one seems hard to say the least.



The interpretation ordered above will be tried in the Apple vs. Motorola suit going on in Chicago, which is assumed to get a ruling this summer.
Source: FOSSpatents

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[3shirts]

Excuse my ignorance but what are the ramifications of this?

[cjb110]

Sounds like it would apply to any processing done on a input stream as it arrived.  But surely we've been doing that too audio streams for decades?

[cjb110]

If this was upheld, then I'd say pretty much every single audio visual device on the planet violates it!

[redhawkuk]

This patent is stupid because if I understand correctly this could apply  to anything from DVD players to Cable TV boxes and mp3 players.

[vorBeth]

From what I see, it applies to more than that, it could apply to any computer system.

eg:
For Android,
API = Touch driver.
Subsystem 1 = display driver
Subsystem 2 = audio driver

In use when you click the screen and it makes a sound

For a Windows PC,
API = HID interface
Subsystem 1 = display driver
Subsystem 2 = storage device interface

In use when you browse the internet

[nalpt]

I think courts and regulators are looking at these issues and lawsuits the wrong way. What regulators should be worried about is that there 2 major OS players, (3 if MS WM8 takesoff), controlling a huge proportion of the market and using too many restrictions (Rootin and Jailbreaking are some attempts to actually own phones you buy) from the consumers point of view. Clearly these market operators are acting as monopolys (oligopoly, in this case) and are holding their costumers hostage to their other sotware (Goggle, gmail, itues, etc.) and cloud apps. This is the real issue legislators and courts should be worring about and fighting, not wasting time with excessive usage of patents. Remeber when android was hailed as the price dropper for smartphones, acting as a cheap OS alternative to IOS and WINMO? Prices, as it turns out, have not in spite of because of Android and costumers of all OS flavours are bound more and more to the providers. Changing OS means changing a whole huge ecosystem of software and hardware acessoires. Sorry about this rant, but it irks me that courts are protecting companies and not costumers.

[skull_fcuk]

I agree. It scares me how money seems to be the only winner here. Oh well, was fun while it lasted.

[skull_fcuk]

I agree. It scares me how money seems to be the only winner here. Oh well, was fun while it lasted.