

Apple is succeeding in its anti-competitive legal efforts to kill HTC - guelo
http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/06/apple-is-trying-its-best-to-kill-htc-and-doing-a-pretty-good-job.php

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fpgeek
Even though I've done it before, it's worth beating this drum again.

The patent that might kill HTC is for a ridiculously obvious "invention": Find
"interesting" items in some text using a regular expression and present them
to the user as clickable actions [1].

As a non-lawyer why am I confident my patent summary is accurate? Because
that's what the Android code at issue here (Linkify) actually does (plus HTC
included the processor, memory and other components to run this on, of
course). Apple originally applied for it based on some behavior of the Power
Macintosh help system.

Examples of potential prior art (though I'll admit they didn't include the
processor and memory):

Live URLs in Netscape Navigator 2.0b1

Highlighting misspelled words in Microsoft Word 95 (if Word 95 included the
context menu for misspellings, which I don't remember)

Potentially impacts:

\- Every modern web browser (note that one of the things HTC has lost on so
far is the behavior of their default browsers)

\- Every modern email client (detecting clickable anything in email)

\- Every word processor that lets you click on misspelled words and choose how
to handle it (I guess Google shouldn't have added system-wide spell-checking
to ICS)

\- The search-result sub-items Google generates for some sites

\- ...

[1] Whether or not alternatives can be presented is an open item of
controversy, I believe. IIRC, handlers for file extensions were common at the
time the patent was filed, though, which gets back to obviousness.

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makhanko
There has been so much said already about patents and lawyers killing
innovation, but if this is not a perfect case in point then I don't know what
is.

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gonzo
imperfect. It doesn't follow that HTC's troubles are due to Apple's IP
lawsuits.

It could just be that Samsung is better at the game.

~~~
fpgeek
HTC is specifically citing the US customs delay related to Apple's current
lawsuit as one of the reasons they are lowering their guidance for the current
quarter. I'd say that's pretty good evidence. There are consequences for lying
to investors about this sort of thing, after all.

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gonzo
misleading headline

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martindale
On-point. Upvote.

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taligent
Please be careful about throwing around the "anti-competitive" phrase. It has
a specific meaning that does not apply here.

Apple has every right (and obligation) to defend patents that were legally
acquired. You can argue that the patents are invalid but that is a different
story.

~~~
fpgeek
Anti-competitive doesn't mean illegal. It is perfectly reasonable to describe
gaming the system to block your competition as anti-competitive. After all,
that kind of behavior is, quite literally, opposed to competition.

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drivebyacct2
Even if I agree, please don't editorialize the headlines.

