Apple v. HTC (2010, USA)
Apple filed suit against HTC Corporation, in March 2010 in the USA. In total, Apple claims twenty patents have been infringed, some of which are software patents. Apple also requested that the US International Trade Commission block imports of HTC's products.[1] In August 2010, HTC filed countersuit against Apple.[2]
Google is not a party in the case, but some of the infringement seems to be claimed due to the Google Android software included on HTC's handheld devices. Some commentators even say Google is the real target.[3]
Contents
Multi-touch prior art
Some articles have suggested one disputed issue is "multi-touch" - using two fingers to manipulate things on your phone. For example, doing a pinching motion to zoom out from a picture. Here are older papers and videos discussing similar ideas:
1985: VIDEODESK, Krueger
Krueger's VIDEODESK idea is, in some ways, the logical extension of video screens that respond to touch. All that would be needed, he says, is a video camera suspended over an empty desk and a flat display screen on a wall. The fingers would do the walking: selecting items from a menu, typing, finger plainting, doing graphic design--any of the myriad things that two hands and ten fingers can specify.
1991: Digital Desk by Pierre Wellner
In the video, he doesn't even mention any kind of "multi-touch", he just does it - it's such an obvious thing to do.
2006: Jeff Han at TED
HTC counter-suit
HTC has responded by counter-suing Apple for infringement of five of its patents in the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and has called for their sale to be banned:
Related pages on ESP Wiki
External links
Initial coverage of Apple's suit, 2 March 2010
- Apple's announcement of filing suit
- Apple Sues HTC For Infringing On 20 iPhone Patents: The Complete Documents, Gizmodo
- http://bosson.blogspot.com/2010/03/apple-makes-war-with-silly-broad.html
- http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-03/apple-starts-nuclear-war-in-patent-fight-with-htc-update2-.html
- http://wilshipley.com/blog/2010/03/open-letter-to-steve-jobs-concerning.html
- http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/410/steve-jobs-and-rupert-murdoch-lets-sue-the-internet.html
- Steve Jobs, 1996: "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal", Gizmodo
- Apple's lawsuit against HTC may have soured my iPad purchase decision, ZDNet blogs
- http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_htc_patent_battle_could_stifle_innovation/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/technology/04htc.html
- Patent Litigation Weekly: Digging Beneath the Surface of Apple v. HTC, 11 Mar 2010, The Prior Art
- Apple's Patent Attack, LWN.net
- HTC PR saying they will defend themselves
- Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown, engadget
HTC's countersuit, 25 Aug 2010
Google's involvement
- Google Backs Its Boy, HTC, In The Apple Lawsuit Ring
- The Complaint: Apple’s Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About Android
- Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal, 12 Mar 2010, New York Times
References
- ↑ http://www.engadget.com/photos/apple-htc-itc-filing-1/#2757943
- ↑ http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100823205223288
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.html "the Taiwanese maker of mobile phones that run Google’s Android operating system, contending that HTC had violated iPhone patents. The move was widely seen as the beginning of a legal assault by Apple on Google itself"
