Apple needs to realize that nothing will stop the world from duplicating what they make. No patents, No courts, nothing can stop people what doing what works, regardless of who thought it up first. Pinch-to-zoom is a very natural interace function, you cannot patent it. Thats like patenting a steering wheel. Some design features are obvious once you have a platform to use them, and if you have a multi-touch device, naturally you will develop commands that use multiple fingers, and what to multiple fingers do? Pinch, slide, etc. etc. You cannot patent that.
U.S District Judge Lucy Koh noted in her ruling issued Monday night that Samsung claims to have "worked around" using different technology than the Apple patents found to have been infringed such as the iPhone's popular "pinch to zoom" feature.
Wow. You can patent implementation, fine, but not concepts and basic physical principles.
Even "implementation" is not supposed to be patented forever. Teh patents are supposed to be for a LIMITED DURATION, and "promote useful arts and sciences". They way patents are done now actually hinders development, because nobody else is allowed to use the ideas in other, more complex devices, without paying the original company.
Who invented the light switch? Why don't they sue everybody?
It's that simple. Basic switches and interfaces should not be patented.
I wish there was a 7 year limit on patents, with a required share law (within the U.S. anyway, not with foreigners).
However, adding to my comments, I'm not saying that as a purely nationist pont of view, but a full share would put technology in the hands of dictators and so obviously that's not what I meant.
I just recognize a more conflict of capitalism with fairness and reality.
Many components are just like computer code in that they perform a single function. The laws of physics dictate that there is probably a single, optimal configuration for a component to have maximum efficiency in the volume allowed. Therefore all smart engineers will eventually arrive at the same solution given the same goals and parameters, as improvements to each model approach the "best possible" solution, those models, even having different origins, will begin to look identical.
It is really sad to see Apply try to bully everybody out of the market, when they should just try to manufacture good product. I will not buy an apply product any time soon..
BSD
Dec 18, 2012