ITC Not Impressed With Latest Smartphone Patent Thicket Cases
from the patent-protectionism dept
In the past, we've pointed out how many patent holders now get two entirely separate cracks at trying to get those they accuse of patent infringement to pay up. There's the regular court system and there's an entirely separate International Trade Commission (ITC) process, as well. Basically, the ITC can make rulings preventing importing infringing works, totally outside of the court system. And, of course, since so many things are made outside the US these days, this could create an effective injunction against those products in the entire US market. One of the key problems is that the ITC uses different standards than the court system to determine if such an injunction is an appropriate step.With the massive patent thicket on smartphones, leading to a bunch of lawsuits, many are using both the court system and the ITC to try to force the other side to give in and just pay up. However, so far, it appears that the ITC is not playing along. We recently noted that the ITC indicated it was rejecting Nokia's claims that Apple's iPhone violated some of its patents, and now the ITC has indicated that it won't side with Apple in its claims against HTC and Nokia.
In other words: keep your silly patent pissing fight out of the ITC.
If the ITC keeps rejecting these attempts to stifle competition via the patent system, then hopefully companies will stop using this little loophole to get to extra bites of the (proverbial) apple.
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Filed Under: itc, patent thicket, patents, smartphones
Companies: apple, htc, nokia
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Re: Just a recommendation, but a certain trend
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These folks will evenutally lose their customer base due to their infighting and ridiculous pricing. And they will point the finger elsewhere, of course.
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Re:
Smartphone market share is growing very rapidly.
> due to their infighting
Not all smartphone OEM's or builders of operating systems are bad guys.
> and ridiculous pricing
My android smartphone cost $108 on contract. 1 GHz. 1 GB RAM. 16 GB internal storage + empty microSD card slot. 5 Megapixel.
My wife's android smartphone also cost $108 on contract. 1.2 GHz. 768 MB RAM. 2 GB internal storage + 8 GB microSD card. 8 megapixel.
> And they will point the finger elsewhere, of course.
Assuming your scenario comes true, which all evidence seems to be against.
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Re: Re:
=
over $2000 for entire length of contract. We're not including app fees, overages, accessories, etc.
Let's not get into the app store models are far far more restrictive than what you get with other computing devices. They also have been proven to spy on you (developers of legit programs, we're not even talking malicious intent programs!)
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Re: Re:
You should have come to me. I could have gotten it for you for "free", on one of my special contracts of course.
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What the ITC should do
Yes, I'm serious.
I seem to recall a patent suit/countersuit between Intel/Motorola back in the late 1980s'. Don't remember who started what. Back in the day we read the industry trade rags like MacWeek, PC Week, etc, before the web. What I do distinctly remember is this: the judge granted both parties injunctions. It was immediately illegal for both Intel and Motorola to ship their respective microprocessors in the US. A settlement was announced the following business day.
Amazing how that worked.
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Re: What the ITC should do
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Re: What the ITC should do
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Patent thickets
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