Topic: Apple the patent troll sues HTC

[The Brad]

My god, you guys know I don't need any reason to have derision for Apple, but the summary of their ludicriously broad and obnoxious patents they are using to bully HTC for DARING to compete with them is absurd:

• Automatic App rearrangement when adding or deleting an app
• Unlocking the phone with a gesture on the screen
• Scrolling behaviour on a touch screen
• Notifications of events within an operating system
• Multitasking, allowing an inactive task to message
• Power saving, sleep mode

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/apple-htc-google/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+GearFactor+%28Blog+-+Gadget+Lab+%28Gear+Factor%29%29

Clearly, US patent law is totally and irrevocably broken, nobody should EVER have granted such patents as these which are so obviously based on previous inventions it just isn't funny.  I just hope this vacuous and vexatious use of lawyers to bully a competitor forces some sort of US patent reform, or at the very least a humiliating, precedent-creating loss for Apple.

There's not one thing they are claiming a patent for which is truly innovative.

[Arghdee]

Fuck patents on software functions and fuck lawyers too. I don't like all this lawsuit and countersuit action.

[The Brad]

Sounds like I'm not alone in my analysis!

Apple's lawsuits against HTC could be the start of a multi-year legal battle, or the start of a proxy fight against Google's Android. Either way, it may become the poster child for the ills of the US patent system.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/03/apple-vs-htc-a-proxy-fight-over-android-could-last-years.ars

[Dartman]

Well we'll have to see how it shakes out. Anyone can sue, doesn't mean they'll win in the end. As much as anything they probably want to shake them outa as much of their income as possible and force them to waste time fighting this crap.