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Author Topic: Apple and the US patent system  (Read 7418 times)

est

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Apple and the US patent system
« on: 05 Mar 2010, 05:06 »

Hey everyone, here's a great idea!  Let's take a bunch of things that are taken for granted, already being used in other realms of computing or at least already in development and then patent them for use in phones!  The patent system is so fucked that they'll give the patents to us, then we can sue anyone who tries to make a competing product!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/03/htc-feeling-apples-fury-over-smartphone-patents.ars
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/03/apples-itc-complaint-names-htc-phones-10-other-patents.ars

Isn't the patent system awesome!
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Ozymandias

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #1 on: 05 Mar 2010, 08:03 »

Apple is still the most evil fucking company in computers.
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McTaggart

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #2 on: 05 Mar 2010, 09:41 »

Software patents are straight up fucked. The whole patent system is fucked but the way you can patent features that have been used for so long that they aren't even features anymore or are so fucking vague that they can sue you for tying your shoelaces  is fucked doubly so.
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #3 on: 05 Mar 2010, 09:52 »

It's not like it was the first time someone had thought of a touchscreen before either. For fuck's sake, look at ATMs.
« Last Edit: 05 Mar 2010, 09:56 by Alex C »
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JD

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #4 on: 05 Mar 2010, 16:34 »

Oh damn, you got me.

Good thing I live in Canada.
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scarred

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #5 on: 05 Mar 2010, 17:45 »

I don't care how evil and/or maniacal Apple is, I still love my Macbook Pro to death. I had a dream I dropped and broke it, and I woke up sobbing.
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #6 on: 05 Mar 2010, 19:19 »

Ah yes, the macbook pro: the laptop that costs a premium just so I can fix problems I have never experienced to begin with.
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #7 on: 05 Mar 2010, 19:22 »

Also, the next time someone tries telling me that macs don't crash or get malware, I'mna skull fuck 'em.
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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #8 on: 05 Mar 2010, 20:09 »

Quote
I still love my Macbook Pro to death
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Johnny C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #9 on: 06 Mar 2010, 01:34 »

I don't care how much I love my Macbook, Apple are still evil and maniacal
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Sox

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #10 on: 06 Mar 2010, 09:30 »

My macbook pro battery exploded, then the power adapter fried, and now it's useless unless I replace those parts for £160.
Once they stop things like that from happening, and make the macbook line into something as reliable as their desktops, maybe then they'll be worth so much freaking money.
I have drawn the conclusion that a macbook is something you buy if you have that much money doing nothing, but it is definitely not something that you should save up for, because it's guaranteed to have some issues down the line, and if you couldn't really afford it in the first place, you definitely won't be able to afford a repair.

It's only their notebooks that I have these issues with, however. In 8 years, I have never experienced any kind of problem whatsoever with desktop macs. If I were to go back and start again, I'd get a macbook desktop and a regular old laptop, because now I am stuck with neither.
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #11 on: 06 Mar 2010, 23:30 »

(This is, of course, just me trying to rationalise the fact that I bought a mac despite knowing that Apple are diiiicks.)

Jens, the only reason I'm not going to give you much shit about your last post is the simple fact that you obviously aren't trying very hard.


I know I come across as overbearing in my Apple hate at times, but honestly, it's largely because for years now people have tended to view Apple as a fuzzy, cuddly Microsoft alternative. Frankly, I'm of the opinion that you should never, ever just give a company the benefit of the doubt in regards to their business practices.
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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #12 on: 07 Mar 2010, 00:33 »

I never got how that worked considering Bill Gates is the biggest philanthropist in the world or near enough to it, and Apple has been routinely called out on its shitty workplace practices.

ipods are pretty though.
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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #13 on: 07 Mar 2010, 09:03 »

Guys due to your use of Letter-Based Word Architecture In A Forum-Oriented Environment For Information Construction And/Or Troll-Based Implementation you all owe me $12b
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #14 on: 07 Mar 2010, 13:02 »

I never got how that worked considering Bill Gates is the biggest philanthropist in the world or near enough to it, and Apple has been routinely called out on its shitty workplace practices.

ipods are pretty though.

Yeah, it takes a long time to change perceptions. I blame the '90s-- Apple losing tons of money but eventually becoming profitable again as the dotcom bubble burst was basically the feel good IT story of the decade compared to Microsoft squaring off against Netscape. An antitrust suit is bound to generate a helluva lot more bad press than Apple jerking around their authorized resellers, even if both bad practices are pretty devastating to the people they affected.
« Last Edit: 07 Mar 2010, 13:09 by Alex C »
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Catfish_Man

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #15 on: 07 Mar 2010, 13:27 »

I never got how that worked considering Bill Gates is the biggest philanthropist in the world or near enough to it, and Apple has been routinely called out on its shitty workplace practices.

ipods are pretty though.

Bill Gates (particularly his personal life) doesn't have that much to do with Microsoft or their policies. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that any large company with a legal department are going to be total dicks periodically. Some are worse than others, some are better. The Apple bashing in this thread is just as ignorant as the Microsoft bashing in others; not all wrong... but mostly.
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scarred

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #16 on: 07 Mar 2010, 14:07 »

Also nobody is going to be convincing anybody else to change their opinions. Or at least no amount of Apple hate is going to make me stop loving my macbook, ipod, and isoul.
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AngelofShadows

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #17 on: 07 Mar 2010, 22:55 »

I wonder how much of an Internet shit storm would ensue if Microsoft released a product and then proceeded to tell the people who bought it what they can and can not do with it? Or if Microsoft made a phone and then tried to break it if you bought it and tried to use it on a service that they didn't want you to?

I dig my Iphone, it can do cool stuff.....unfortunately, it can only do said stuff after I void the warranty and jailbreak the bitch.

I think I had a point when I started this post. I really did. Something that concluded with me comparing Apple to something evil, but god damn, it's nearly 2 in the morning, and I'm not all that clever to begin with. So, you know, fuck it.



It being Steve Jobs.
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Catfish_Man

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #18 on: 08 Mar 2010, 19:01 »

I wonder how much of an Internet shit storm would ensue if Microsoft released a product and then proceeded to tell the people who bought it what they can and can not do with it?

Relatively mild one, judging by the many many times that's happened. A few slashdot articles (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/04/132221&tid=109 for example), then most everyone forgets.
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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #19 on: 10 Mar 2010, 07:57 »

I don't understand this whole "iPhones are shit until you jailbreak them, which apple don't want you to do, because apple are shit" mentality. It's even more astounding when people begin making comments that sound to me like "microsoft would NEVER do such a thing as be so absurdly protective of their single most successful product ever".

I've attended two creative pursuits through college over the last several years. And of course, those courses required the use extensive use of macs rather than PCs. There was a single PC in each building, because they were required to have "at least one" due to the IT department on the main site supposedly experiencing a lot of compatibility issues with the macs. One tutor of mine spent an afternoon regaling the students with stories these 'compatibility issues' and many laughs were shared by all. Essentially, the IT department was run by the same PC users who think that your worth as a human being is inversely proportional to the amount of money you spend on your computer.
Each year, as new students would arrive and old ones left, I saw the same thing.
"We'll be using macs."
*collective groan*
For the first few weeks, every year, there would be conversations about how bad macs suck whenever somebody had to use a computer. Then, nothing. By the end of the year, everybody who hadn't already purchased a mac was now adamant on getting one. Everybody at the end was always so nice and pleasant, and everybody got along. But at the beginning, everybody would be so incredibly angry all the time.
The evidence presents itself: Happiness is a mac.
How happy a person is, is directly related to what type of computer they use. The angrier somebody seems on the internet, the more likely they are to be a PC user. The more you hear a person say "fag" in a post, the smaller the chance that they are posting from an iMac. If somebody comes across as a very affable person, impossible to displace from their serene disposition, then they're probably using a different operating system altogether. As a yet unenlightened mac user, I have no idea. Nirvana is a MeOS?

I'm biased. I much prefer using OSX to any Windows operating system that I've had any experience with. But I don't hate PCs. I'd love to have a laptop running Windows 7. I've only ever met two mac users who claimed to hate PCs, but they were both 16/17 at the time (people on the internet do not count), and thus their opinions meant absolutely nothing. However, I have met countless PC loyalist who are quick to insult people based on their preference for macs. This initially lead me to draw the conclusion that while most OSX users have a preference, most Windows users had an obsession. Which isn't true, obviously. The truth is that the majority of people who use either couldn't give a crap either way, which is the way that it should be.

Your operating system is surely nothing more than the glove you use to interact with your computer?

I once tried counting the countless operating systems out there. No need to tell you that I gave up. There are plenty of alternatives to Windows and OSX. Nobody is forcing anybody to use either. Except maybe for Microsoft and Apple.
I think it'd be interesting if we started some kind of group. Like a book group. Only, instead of reading books, we trial different operating systems and then discuss the pros and cons of each at the end of every week.
Be difficult for those of us with only one system, though?
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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #20 on: 10 Mar 2010, 10:31 »


LINUX \m/_

Sorry, I don't know what's going on in this thread really, but that last post reminded me of this (^) bumper sticker I got on facebook
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LTK

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #21 on: 10 Mar 2010, 10:57 »

I think the point was that Apple = Evil (or Businesses = Evil) and Patents = Fucked, then somewhere the inevitable Apple > Microsoft came up and led to the above.
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #22 on: 10 Mar 2010, 11:44 »

I'm biased. I much prefer using OSX to any Windows operating system that I've had any experience with. But I don't hate PCs. I'd love to have a laptop running Windows 7. I've only ever met two mac users who claimed to hate PCs, but they were both 16/17 at the time (people on the internet do not count), and thus their opinions meant absolutely nothing. However, I have met countless PC loyalist who are quick to insult people based on their preference for macs. This initially lead me to draw the conclusion that while most OSX users have a preference, most Windows users had an obsession. Which isn't true, obviously. The truth is that the majority of people who use either couldn't give a crap either way, which is the way that it should be.


I'm in the same situation, but reversed. The only mac users I know are generally complete toolboxes.
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Alex C

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #23 on: 10 Mar 2010, 11:53 »

I will say one thing though: I don't know what kind of computers a lot of my acquaintances own. It's not a subject that comes up often. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a pretty even pc-mac split amongst some of my more distant friends simply because a lot of 'em make enough money where getting a pretty upscale Mac isn't a big burden.
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LTK

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #24 on: 10 Mar 2010, 14:22 »

Amusing personal anecdote: I took an interview with a fellow student from a high school teacher, and this is what happened when he pulled out his laptop.

Teacher: You're also a student, right?
Student: Yeah.
Teacher: What the heck are you doing with a Macbook pro?

Yes, macs among students are more uncommon since the common student at the university of Amsterdam can't afford one. They're abundant with the staff, though. His story: at the end of the year he had a couple thousand in his bank account and didn't want it to go up on taxes, so he blew everything on a mac plus any peripheral available. Uses it to play flash games at Kongregate through half of every lecture. But I guess for every dumbass Mac user there is a dumbass PC user.

Speaking of Microsoft vs. Everything else, witness an epic Microsoft troll.
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Ozymandias

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Re: Apple and the US patent system
« Reply #25 on: 10 Mar 2010, 16:00 »

That's not really trolling. Trademarks and patents are two wildly different beasts.
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