Archive for: patent
Since Apple didn’t have a fun childhood (or iPhones), they have to take the fun out of ours! If it isn’t one thing it is another with this company. Now, I am a huge Apple fanboy — have been since my Dad’s Apple deuce years and years ago, 20+ years in the making to be the stuck up snob I am today…But this is just getting ridiculous. Yes, their app rejection has become a little less fascist if you will, but it seems they do more and more to stop us from living our lives the way we want to.
The latest smack to our faces is that Apple was awarded a Patent today for filtering sext messages. Yes, you heard that right! Apple can now control the text messages we send back and forth. This is just basically uber parental controls for your kids’ iSlutPhones. But really…Why not have our parents educate our children from being slutbags and teach them respect for others and not to be complete arseholes. I see 8 year old children walking around telling me to “get the F*** out of my way” whenever I set foot into a Wal-Mart. Yes, that is because I am in a Wal-Mart, but still! This kind of censorship should start with the parents, not with Apple allowing them to slack off at teaching their kids things and giving them a lazy way out.
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I’m really getting sick and tired of tech companies (or any company for that matter) hiding behind the false guise of “protecting investors’, shareholders’, and consumers’ interests when suing other competing companies. If you cut through the BS, it comes down to this: the lawsuit-happy company can’t or doesn’t want to innovate (read: spend more money than it needs to) and instead is looking to sue their competition out of existence.
When it comes to Android, we’ve seen plenty of lawsuits already. Because it labels itself as “free” and “open source”, the rest of the world wants to swarm in on it, combing through every aspect of the platform, and ultimately find something — Anything! — that they can use as fodder for a legal battle. In this case, it’s Microsoft suing Motorola for — You guessed it! — patent infringement related to Android. In total, Microsoft is accusing Motorola of violating (9) separate patents that they hold, comprising of various areas: synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.
Seeing as how Microsoft just made this public, we’ll have to keep following the drama as it unfolds. Legal battles between one dominant player who has the world in their hands and a lesser, failing competitor with nothing to lose is always worth a seat and some popcorn. Stay tuned…
Update
Looks like a fair amount of people aren’t too impressed with Microsoft’s lawsuit — pretty much every comment is criticizing Microsoft…on Microsoft’s own blog. So how long until we see the banhammer/delete sweep?
Patent infringement is something that giant tech companies fight day in and day out. Whether it’s in self defense from a competitor or protecting their own interests, the modern tech company will unavoidably spend a fair amount of company resources on patents and infringement.
Without getting too political or diving deep into the catacombs of lawyer speak, we’ll simply state the infringement claims against HTC according to Apple, then point out how it’s broken. Continue on…
In this day and age, it’s becoming an increasingly common trait to misuse and confuse copyright law in the digital age. The simple matter of it is, you cannot place rules, business models, or regulations that were designed decades ago for physical goods on digital ones today. But alas, it is what it is. With that, we end up where we are today — Microsoft apparently realizing Android is a growing threat and instead of actually keeping their head down and putting all of their resources into Windows Phone 7, are looking to go down the legal route with Android.
If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em…
Think the world is chock full of too many adapters, connectors, and proprietary crap already? Fear not, Apple may have another one in the works for us. A recent patent filing showing a new Mac desktop (non-Pro model) featuring a more rounded shape and smaller footprint. But the real interesting part is the hybrid DisplayPort/USB 3.0 connector.
Now, I could be misinterpreting this, but if it is in fact a new connector that is unique to Apple — Why? Why unleash yet another connector that requires special changes to hardware? I know everyone in the world wants a “one cable to rule them all” type of gig, but releasing more and more “uber cables” isn’t the right way to go about it.
Supposedly, this new connector as detailed in the patent would take the place of current dock connector that has become ubiquitous in today’s society, and ushering in a new era of speed and features.
Of course, if everyone just put all their eggs into the LightPeak basket, that super duper uber cable would sure get here a lot sooner don’t you think?
9to5Mac
- February 19, 2010 9:22 am
Video games are a wonderful thing. They increase your hand-eye coordination, entertain, and pass large amounts of time that seem to drag on forever. For most, the entertainment factor is the most important. Getting into the console gaming scene specifically, choosing what platform you want to use can at times be difficult. Do you want the eye candy and more hackability of the PS3, the expansive online gaming world of Xbox Live, or the get up and move nature of the Wii?
If you choose all three, dealing with the onslaught of controllers, adapters, and cables isn’t exactly the poster child for a great time. For cords, controllers are now coming wireless — problem solved. Adapters — well, you’re still stuck there. Though you can get switches to make moving back and forth between consoles as easy as the push of a button. Controllers however are a completely different beast.
When a new console is released, manufacturers spend millions of dollars and resources developing and designing these new controllers as they are literally the way you interact with the entire platform — clearly an import matter. But those different controllers can mean headaches for end users. For that, Sony may have a solution.
For now, this is pure rumor, but documents reportedly belonging to Sony show a universal game controller that would allow users to use the same controller on PS3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. If the controller truly designed well, this could be a huge thing for the gaming world. I wouldn’t mind giving a universal controller a try if it didn’t make me curse it’s name five minutes after picking it up as so many previous attempts have. If they can concur that, they are well on their way. According to the patent:
“A game console controller includes a hand-holdable housing and a touch sensitive liquid crystal display (LCD) on the housing. The LCD is caused to present, depending on what type of game console a user has selected, a controller key layout for a first type of game console or a controller key layout for a second type of game console. A key layout includes plural keys selectable by a user to input commands to a game console.”
One potential roadblock I see however, is Microsoft and Nintendo either not getting on board with this universal controller idea or devising some sort of software patch that would “authenticate” peripherals and render non-official ones useless — much like Microsoft did with 3rd party memory cards. If that happens, consider it a kick in the pants to the gaming population and another appearance of greed making it’s dirty mark on the world.
Also a potential hurdle, the patent mentions the use of a touchscreen for a fair helping of the buttons. That’s cool and all, allowing the layout to be customized more than a physical layout could ever allow, but many hardcore gamers (and myself included) won’t be too keen on hours upon hours of buttonless mashing. There are some things touchscreens just don’t accomplish too well yet. Sometimes feeling the button is the very thing that makes it desirable.
The real question is simply: Would you use it, or would the more touchscreen based interface turn you off and do you think there’s any real weight behind this rumor?
**Bonus question: Sony, long known for their proprietary lifestyle, is now secretly developing a universal controller that plays well with the other kids on the block? Why the change of heart?
Gizmodo > GoRumors
- December 22, 2009 3:25 pm
Fighting a losing battle and getting stuck in a vicious black hole of denial seems to be the name of the game for Microsoft. A month or so back Microsoft found a fresh lawsuit on their doorstep compliments of i4i. The infringing code revolved around Microsoft’s use of protected algorithms dealing with the handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files in Microsoft Office — more specifically Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007. Not surprisingly Microsoft appealed — and they lost, with the court ordered Office ban going into effect as originally planned on January 11th.
Microsoft does have a couple more options. A second appeal is all but certain. After a likely second (third if you count the original lawsuit) failure, Microsoft can always just shut up and pay up. I can understand wanting to protect your pride and fighting for your beliefs, but after losing twice in court, I’d seriously take a look at how much the lawyers are costing the company as well as what any settlement cost would be.
And companies wonder where their money goes…
Engadget > WSJ
[Image Source]
- December 17, 2009 10:41 am
Patent and IP problems oh my. For a quick refresher, “Square” is an innovative new piece of hardware that attaches itself to any iPhone/iPod Touch and instantly transforms it into a mobile POS station. Cool, right? Definitely. But the startup is far from the finish line. A patent problem is looming that could derail Square’s launch and ultimately cost them big time.
The founders of Square consisted of Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey. The two coined the whole idea and plan you see in front of you. The brains behind the engineering side of things however was the work of Jim McKelvey’s friend Bob Morley. So we have the 3 amigos working to make an evolutionary new mobile payment system. Keep following…
From the beginning to what we have now, the Square hardware has undergone several changes though the underlying software behind it has remained unchanged. The software in particular is where it gets dicey. Apparently the 3 amigos had a minor disagreement that led to Morely filing a patent for the Square’s technology — in his own name. The disagreement allegedly centers around the fact that in return for ownership of the Square patent and IP, Morely wanted shares of the company. So far negotiations haven’t gone well. Complicating matters, chances of the patent being turned down are slight as Morely was in fact the man who did the software engineering work.
So now you see the problem. Square relies on this software developed by Bob Morely to function. If reports of a falling out are true, it leaves Square and it’s founders in an interesting mental limbo. Do they risk it and push ahead with the technology, at first ignoring any payments or licensing fees towards Morely. Or, do they buy/license the technology. The latter could end up costing quite a pretty penny, especially so because the three are all familiar with each other as well as the companies bank accounts.
On the flip side, pushing onward only to later face one or many lawsuits can quickly rack up costs as well. It’s again a problematic circumstance. If the patent is granted to Morely, how will he play his card? If it’s not, well then we have nothing to talk about. Business as usual, oh happy day. For the sake of Square’s members and the technology sector as a whole, I sure hope any looming problems can be settled peacefully and outside of court. Agreed?
Electric Pig > Fast Company
- November 17, 2009 10:07 am
The Pirate Bay trackers may be down for the count, but that infamous sailing ship will live on, plastered against countless clothing items from t-shirts and hoodies to sweatbands and underwear. In an odd turn of events, that iconic logo used by The Pirate Bay is in the process of becoming patented. Yes, patented. But it isn’t by founding members or anyone related to the company. Instead, a Swedish clothing and technology retailer called Sandryds Handel is taking it upon themselves to claim ownership. The founding members, with their pretty blanket feels frowning on private ownership, see this as an abomination and have stated that they feel the logo should remain in the public domain — which is the reason they never patented the logo themselves. What’s bringing me to a hearty chuckle is that this company believes a mass following of pirates — who don’t pay up front for stuff — are going to begin throwing money out for gimmicky products trying to cash in on TPB name. We’ll see how well that goes…
Now some other company is going to pick up the pieces of TPB and make some money off of their name. Pretty sad and shady if you ask me. Though from a business stand point, why not rip off someone elses logo and brand image to turn a dollar on your own time? The TPB logo has just been shat upon. Perhaps Sandryds Handel should spend a few dollars designing their own logo hmm?
What do you have to say?
Wired
