Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Summary: Apple has been doing its best to beat the snot out of Android in the courts with intellectual property lawsuits. Now, with Google purchase of Motorola Mobility, Android's maker will have the patents it needs to retaliate.
Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility is looking like a sure thing and that spells trouble for Apple's Android lawsuits.
There are two major kinds of patent lawsuits. On the one side, there are the patent trolls, like Eolas making fundamental Web technology claims . Here, the idea is to use flimsy patents to collect hundreds of millions from the businesses that actually use ideas to make a product or service. Then, there's what Apple has been trying to do to Samsung and other Android vendors: Sue them out of the marketplace. Apple's not been successful at this, but that hasn't stopped them from trying. Indeed, Apple is trying to block Samsung from selling the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, in the U.S. Apple's lawsuit happy ways may soon come to an end though. The European Union (EU) has cleared Google's proposed purchase of Motorola Mobility.
Why would this make a difference? Because Google won't have the patents it needed to fight Apple until its purchase of Motorola goes through. Getting permission from the EU was the deal's biggest stumbling block. Now, it's almost a sure thing. And, in this second class of patent lawsuits, where software patents are merely ammunition for business wars. Google needed the Motorola's patent ammo to fight off Apple's patent claims.
To be specific, while Google will get thousands of patents from the Motorola acquisition, eighteen of them are already being used by Motorola lawsuits against Apple. They cover technology essential to the mobile-device industry, including location services, antenna designs, e-mail transmission, touch-screen motions, software-application management and 3G data. The 3G wireless patents have already led to Apple no longer being able to sell some iPad and iPhone models in Germany.
Does Apple really want to face the chance of not being able to sell the forthcoming iPad 3 and its iPhones lines in the U.S.? Only if they're idiots!
Unlike Apple, Google has shown that they're willing to make patent peace instead of patent war. To make the EU happy, Google has pledged to license Motorola patents on ffair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND) terms to other mobile manufacturers, even competitors, should the deal succeed. If Apple is smart, they'll stop trying to sue Android out of the marketplace, adopt FRAND practices themselves for their IP, and put all their attention back into delivering the best possible products. Spending more time and money on anti-Android IP lawsuits looks more and more to be a losing game.
Related Stories:
European Commission clears Google, Motorola merger
Apple gets kicked in the teeth by German patent lawsuit decisions
Can Apple really beat Android in the courts?
Apple's Worldwide War on Samsung and Android
European antitrust regulators: Global patent battle could be 'used as tool for abuse'
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Talkback
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Seriously... This guy doesn't get it.. Lol..
Contrary to what SJV says.. I think this is what Apple has been dreaming of.. Since before Google didn't derive any revenue directly from Android
it couldn't sue Google directly because there were no dorect damages no with Google becoming an android manufacture there will be.. they can now sue Google directly..
Apple will NEVER enter into cross licensing agreements with these guys they will force Google to sell the licences at the FRAND rates as
They are ovligiged to be sold at and continue suing..
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Apple has found the right tactic.. 99% of these patents that these guys own are part of standard.. so as I said Moto, Samsung etc are obliged by law to licence these patents fairly and non-discriminatory or they will be investigated and fined like Samsung is on their way to being by the EU..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577194503316197864.html
Also Moto is trying to extract money from tech used on Qualcomm chips.. but there are in breach of their contract with Qualcomm because their licence is supposed to allow the users of Qualcomm chip to use them without having to licence them.. this is called exhaustion in the law.. if this wasn't there then we as users should all have to pay for use of this tech as well.. but we don't..
http://www.pcworld.com/article/249841/apple_files_complaint_against_motorola_in_us_to_prevent_iphone_4s_litigation.html
Agree whole heartedly, Samalie
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
It is not only Apple, but Microsoft and bunch others whose IP is infringed by Android code.
If Google were any good, they would have cleared that questionable code long ago..
On the contrary, it is you who doesn't get it.
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Steve Jobs was the best Marketer/Brainwasher in history.
For example, If AAPL is so innovative, why is IOS 5 just a bunch of Android enhancements?
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Absolutly right. I hate to admit it, but I still use my Palm Tungsten E2. It boots instantly, has a good screen and with Word, Excel and a data base on it, it's still a pretty useful device. OK, so it does lack a phone, but I use bluetooth to connect to my PC for email.
smichael9
Tunnel vision much?
No, Apple took their ideas, not their patents, and made something that was easy to use and as a result, attractive; I don't mean attractive in a 'style' sense either.
Still, Apple did have to use existing technologies for the phone capabilities and quite honestly they chose to use an already-licensed radio chip for their cellular connections. Antenna designs are quite literally constrained by the frequencies used and have to fall within certain sizes and shapes, though with the iPhone 4 and up (so far) the frame itself is the antenna system which should be exempt from any antenna patents that do (but shouldn't) exist.
Apple has changed the direction of phones world wide with the iPhone. Google 'stole' the concept by creating an Android that looked something like OS X on iPhone (now iOS). Had Google chosen to make it look different (maybe like Metro?) we probably wouldn't be seeing so much litigation today.
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Apple invents almost nothing. They are however good marketers. With the attacks on Samsung, I would predict that Apple will have some serious problems by this time next year. It seems that Samsung makes the screens that Apple is using, and they have Patents on them. Apple is covered, as long as they buy their screens from Samsung, but, with the current monopoly attempts by Apple of using vague patents that can be 'stretched to cover almost literally anything, and actually cover nothing, Samsung isn't in any mood to renew the current purchase agreements.
"Foist on his own petard" is the Phrase Shakespeare used to describe what is happening right now. Apple has angered many for it's legal shenanigans. It is entirely possible that in a year, Apple will not be allowed to sell in Europe or in the US. More likely, will be that losing the major lawsuits they have going on, with patents that don't really cover anything, Apple will be faced with owing the opposition for Millions of sales that are being improperly blocked. Since this was done diliberately, those costs will bear a triple indemnity. That could really hurt Apple.
Oh, and only a few of the patents cited against Apple are under the Standards umbrella. Motarolla has thousands to use. Apple is like SCO in this. The cracks are starting to appear in the roof of their imaginary structure.
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Apple invented NOTHING. What they DID do was take existing tech, make it pretty, easier to use and wrapped an ecosystem around it. I guess Palm and Microsoft should have had their way with Apple back then. Now Apple is more evil than Microsoft at their worst. The global thermo nuclear attack failed and now it is returning to home base to leave a mushroom. With Motorola's IP, Google will be unstoppable as it shares these with its partners. Sammy, HTC, Moto and LG are all going to be able to tell Apple where to go. And Apple will be forced to update their 5 year old interface to compete.
Do you really expect Google to share everything?
Samsung is already looking at doing phones and tablets with their own mobile OS, HTC will stick to the bargain-basement market while LG will probably come out somewhere in the middle until they figure out quality is more important than quantity--as they have with most other devices they build.
Apple, meanwhile, will continue as it has and is likely to become the first to change computing as we know it.
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
You seem to be confident in your ability to tell the Future. I would like to remind you of the famous quote from Yogi Berra "Prediction is hard, especially about the Future."
Apple's problem here is that they have taken on most of the consumer electronics industries. The patent clauses they are relying on all have a clause that said something like 'void if you sue us over anything.' Now, Samsung and HTC will come in with Google. Google meanwhile isn't even being sued. But, they will come in with their own patents from Motorola. Apple will be boxed into a corner.
The biggest problem for Apple is still to come.
Apple makes nothing. They buy the components, and then have them assembled. This leaves them terribly vulnerable. All Samsung and HTC and some others need to do is refuse to sell to them, and Apple is out of business. That is the problem with these sorts of processes. In lawsuits, only the lawyers win.
The Wright Brothers tried to sue Glen Curtis out of business until they ran out of money. They wound up selling their company to Curtis. Curtis-Wright is now a part of Grumman, I believe. It's an old story.
We just saw most of the wind up of the SCO attempt to dominate the market by lawsuits. When they got to court, a jury got to see it and there was nothing real there. Bye Bye SCO. That took only a day for the Jury to decide. Like the guy from Chicago who in Texas who tried to say that he 'owned' the entire internet. That one took the Jury only about an hour to decide. Over half of all patents are invalidated when they reach a Jury. That's because the Patent Office gives out patents for nonsense things. Like Apple's claim to have invented the that people are using, and were using 10 years before Apple began as a company.
It's called Prior Art, and it is the main reason that Apple will lose.
In Australia and Germany, the Judges did grant an order stopping the sale of Apples competitors products, based on arguments from Apples Lawyers, and from the fact, generally omitted on reports from Australia, that the Judge was married to the lawyer for Apple. But, when the cases were reviewed, those stays were lifted, because Apple has a lot of arguments, but no case.
It's all a stalling game now. When it ends, Apple will probably have what SCO and the Wright Brothers got out of it. They are suing their competitors, who are also their suppliers. Apple has nothing to replace the supply with. Nothing is what Apple will be left with in the end.
As Walt Disney said "Zippity Do Dah Zippity Yay".
RE: Apple's Android nightmare: Google's Motorola purchase gets EU OK
Apple invented NOTHING. What they DID do was take existing tech, make it pretty, easier to use and wrapped an ecosystem around it. I guess Palm and Microsoft should have had their way with Apple back then. Now Apple is more evil than Microsoft at their worst. The global thermo nuclear attack failed and now it is returning to home base to leave a mushroom. With Motorola's IP, Google will be unstoppable as it shares these with its partners. Sammy, HTC, Moto and LG are all going to be able to tell Apple where to go. And Apple will be forced to update their 5 year old interface to compete.