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Apple: If We Can’t Beat Google & Microsoft, We’ll Sue their Phone Manufacturers!

Posted Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 10:44 am by Antonio Wells 13 Comments

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The title is not a quote or any implied quote from Apple, Inc. and does not reflect the opinion of Apple, Inc. It is solely the sarcastic interpretation of AndroidTapp.com.

Now that the legal jazz is out of the way (because Apple may sue us for the title), we’ll delve into the context at hand. Apple announced that they will be suing HTC for infringement on 20 of their patents! HTC is the thriving mobile handset manufacturer behind many of Google’s Android powered phones including the Nexus One and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and now Windows Phone 7 software.

Some of the patents are very broad and their asking for maximum monetary damages plus barring HTC from importing alleged phone to the U.S. This comes on the heels of Apple already counter-suing Nokia for very similar, Palm is in radar but since they have not made a big enough splash in the mobile OS pond yet… they have not been served with papers.

Here’s the patent allegations in summary and the full legal document via Gizmodo:

The ’331 Patent, entitled “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States,” was duly and legally issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The ’949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,” was duly and legally issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’949 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit B.

The ’849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” was duly and legally issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’849 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit C.

The ’381 Patent, entitled “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display,” was duly and legally issued on December 23, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’381 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit D.

The ’726 Patent, entitled “System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device,” was duly and legally issued on July 6, 1999 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’726 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit E.

The ’076 Patent, entitled “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices,” was duly and legally issued on December 15, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’076 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit F.

The ’105 Patent, entitled “GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality,” was duly and legally issued on December 8, 1998 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’105 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit G.

The ’453 Patent, entitled “Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor,” was duly and legally issued on June 3, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’453 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit H.

The ’599 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Graphic System,” was duly and legally issued on October 3, 1995 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’599 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit I.

The ’354 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods,” was duly and legally issued on July 23, 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ’354 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit J.

I personally see this as a corporate ploy to eradicate competition and keep smartphone superiority as other companies elbow into their space. If Apple has their way it would have negative effects ultimately on consumers, limits choice and innovation in the market.

Would this stick or not? Would this defeat, slow down or do nothing to Google’s Android or Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7? Would this eliminate HTC right when they’re just getting started? What are your thoughts?

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