Google backs HTC in what could be 'long and bloody battle' with Apple
Apple's patent lawsuit against handset maker HTC is predicted by one analyst to be a major clash between the two corporations, with Apple having better than 50-50 odds to come out victorious in protecting its iPhone-related inventions.
Analyst Charlie Wolf, in a note to investors with Needham & Company Wednesday morning, said he believes Apple has a good chance to win its suit against HTC. A victory could result in patent violators being forced to change the user interface on their devices, or be forced to not sell their phones in the U.S.
"Apple invested heavily and imaginatively in designing a unique, disruptive smartphone," Wolf wrote. "In our view, the company has every right to protect the iPhone's unique features."
It was on Tuesday that Apple filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in a U.S. District Court in Delaware, accusing rival phone maker HTC of infringing on 20 patents related to the iPhone's user interface. Apple also specifically named a number of handsets, including some powered by the Google Android operating system, as being in violation.
Following the news, Google reached out to TechCrunch to weigh in on the matter: "We are not a party to this lawsuit," a spokesperson said. "However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it."
Wolf said Apple's main issue with Android likely lies in the application of multi-touch functionality, originally pioneered by the iPhone. HTC and Google partnered to create the Nexus One handset, which received a software update adding multi-touch support after its January release. A year ago, HTC also introduced an Android phone with an iPhone-like virtual keyboard.
Apple's lawsuit specifically stated that the alleged patent violations pertain to "software architectures, frameworks, and implementations, including various aspects of software used to implement operating systems." Apple has asked the ITC to ban the sale of all HTC handsets in the U.S., and also to issue a permanent cease and desist order preventing the company from selling, distributing, licensing or advertising its smartphones.
Wolf said he believes Apple has fired the "first salvo in what could be a long and bloody battle" with rival HTC. The analyst sees Apple's aggressive approach with both HTC and Google as a positive for the company. Needham & Company has maintained its buy recommendation for AAPL stock with a price target of $280.
Also weighing in Wednesday, analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros. said the lawsuit is likely to take years, but Apple's "very large war chest" will likely force some competitors to either take out features or pay royalties to Apple.
"While we are not surprised with this lawsuit as AAPL has said that it intends to vigorously defend its intellectual property, we do find the timing somewhat curious," Wu wrote. "From our conversations with industry sources, we believe the recent introduction of basic multi-touch capability by HTC and (Google) likely triggered this. While the lawsuit doesn't name GOOG, we believe it is indirectly aimed at the company as well as at others including (Nokia), (Motorola), Samsung, LG, etc.
Analyst Charlie Wolf, in a note to investors with Needham & Company Wednesday morning, said he believes Apple has a good chance to win its suit against HTC. A victory could result in patent violators being forced to change the user interface on their devices, or be forced to not sell their phones in the U.S.
"Apple invested heavily and imaginatively in designing a unique, disruptive smartphone," Wolf wrote. "In our view, the company has every right to protect the iPhone's unique features."
It was on Tuesday that Apple filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in a U.S. District Court in Delaware, accusing rival phone maker HTC of infringing on 20 patents related to the iPhone's user interface. Apple also specifically named a number of handsets, including some powered by the Google Android operating system, as being in violation.
Following the news, Google reached out to TechCrunch to weigh in on the matter: "We are not a party to this lawsuit," a spokesperson said. "However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it."
Wolf said Apple's main issue with Android likely lies in the application of multi-touch functionality, originally pioneered by the iPhone. HTC and Google partnered to create the Nexus One handset, which received a software update adding multi-touch support after its January release. A year ago, HTC also introduced an Android phone with an iPhone-like virtual keyboard.
Apple's lawsuit specifically stated that the alleged patent violations pertain to "software architectures, frameworks, and implementations, including various aspects of software used to implement operating systems." Apple has asked the ITC to ban the sale of all HTC handsets in the U.S., and also to issue a permanent cease and desist order preventing the company from selling, distributing, licensing or advertising its smartphones.
Wolf said he believes Apple has fired the "first salvo in what could be a long and bloody battle" with rival HTC. The analyst sees Apple's aggressive approach with both HTC and Google as a positive for the company. Needham & Company has maintained its buy recommendation for AAPL stock with a price target of $280.
Also weighing in Wednesday, analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros. said the lawsuit is likely to take years, but Apple's "very large war chest" will likely force some competitors to either take out features or pay royalties to Apple.
"While we are not surprised with this lawsuit as AAPL has said that it intends to vigorously defend its intellectual property, we do find the timing somewhat curious," Wu wrote. "From our conversations with industry sources, we believe the recent introduction of basic multi-touch capability by HTC and (Google) likely triggered this. While the lawsuit doesn't name GOOG, we believe it is indirectly aimed at the company as well as at others including (Nokia), (Motorola), Samsung, LG, etc.
Comments
- Steve Jobs, 1996
I'm guessing that Google has a bit of a firewall between themselves and Apple via licensing arrangements with their Hardware partners. (Google isn't selling the phone).
Both companies have plenty of cash, but my money is on Apple in this one.
Word to Google and Eric...... what comes around goes around.
It has been suggested elsewhere that Apple's internal statistics are not optimistic or that something is askew for the future, suggesting that Apple feels threatened to the point of cutting off competition with litigation.
What a crock !!
Apple has every right to defend its patents. The iPhone, when introduced in 2007, was a revolutionary product that dramatically changed the cellphone industry. Now, Google/HTC want to rip-off Apple's intellectual property. All Apple is doing is protecting its property from being stolen. Without the use of patented features invented by Apple, Google's cellphone ambitions are dead in the water !!!
Where do you get this nonsense about internal statistics?
"We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
- Steve Jobs, 1996
You do know that Jobs was paraphrasing a quote by Picasso when he made that comment? To de-contextualise that sentence is sophistry.
It has been suggested elsewhere that Apple's internal statistics are not optimistic or that something is askew for the future, suggesting that Apple feels threatened to the point of cutting off competition with litigation.
So in other words the exact opposite of what's going on. ROFL!
Anyway, here's who Apple hired:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkland_and_Ellis
HTC is toast.
I haven't read the docs, but how in hell do you not name Google in this lawsuit when they developed the software that is probably principal to the 20 named patent infringements.
I'm guessing that Google has a bit of a firewall between themselves and Apple via licensing arrangements with their Hardware partners. (Google isn't selling the phone).
Both companies have plenty of cash, but my money is on Apple in this one.
Word to Google and Eric...... what comes around goes around.
You don't name Google because Google isn't the one selling it.
It has been suggested elsewhere that Apple's internal statistics are not optimistic or that something is askew for the future, suggesting that Apple feels threatened to the point of cutting off competition with litigation.
I doubt very much this has to do with Apple feeling 'threatened' at all.
It is very simple, either you defend your patents, or you lose the rights to those patents.
If I patent a machine that creates blue widgets. And 18 months after release you create a machine that makes blue widgets (in the same manner) I have 2 choices, defend my patent or lose the rights to control my own patent. I am being overly simplistic, but that is the gist of it.
Lets set the way back machine to 1986? Apple Sued Microsoft for infringement on its graphical user interface. Apple lost, eventually, due to prior art at Xerox-PARC, but I believe that Xerox, by not defending it, lost the ability to require licenses of that technology from both companies. My memory might be hazy on the exact details, and I am not going to do a lit search to post on a blog. ;-) [edited for readability - need more coffee]
This is just a step in the great dance of who 'owns' what idea. Hell, back in 1990, I developed specs for a clamshell touch-screen device that would connect to the internet wirelessly. I, stupidly, didn't patent it. But if I had, you can bet I'd be going after Microsoft if one of their rumored WinPho7 phones does just that.
Apples interface for the iPhone was 'disruptive' and revolutionary. They deserve protection against copy cats.
There is no point in having patents if you do not defend them. If you do not defend your patents within a set period of time they can be regarded as irrelevant or even null and void.
You do know that Jobs was paraphrasing a quote by Picasso when he made that comment? To de-contextualise that sentence is sophistry.
Don't bother. You are using words that the fellow won't understand.
Wrong. You can choose to litigate your patents at any time during the period they are in effect. There is no provision that says you have to maintain them through vigilance. You are thinking of trademarks which is a different IP beast altogether.
Ah. Cool.
Well, no point in sitting them though.
"We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
- Steve Jobs, 1996
LOL not that quotation taken completely out of context. Steve Jobs was talking about inspiration and the ideas Apple can leverage from its own pool of talent it brought together, not about ripping off other people's patents. Here it is in full, and it's quite a brilliant quotation:
Ultimately it comes down to taste. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what you?re doing. I mean Picasso had a saying - he said good artists copy great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas, and I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.
Your signature, on the other hand, isn't simply a misreading of a quotation, it's an outright lie. But that's alright. When it comes to Apple, that's really the best that trolls could ever do. Especially these days.
You don't name Google because Google isn't the one selling it.
That is a key point to understand. The whole concept is to prevent someone from PROFITING from your patent.
As Android is open source, Google is not directly profiting from phone. Now that is not to say that Apple won't go after Google in the future, but my guess is that they are using this action to shape what competitors can and can't do with with the Android interface.
It is hard, immensely hard, to go after Google/Android directly because the patents in question are all related to interface, how that interface interacts with the OS, and the developmental frameworks underlying the interface. Both iPhone and Android are descended from open-source. But the UI and frameworks to bridge between the UI and the kernal are Apples. Google just has to say that it didn't write the UI pieces and then they are 'off the hook'.
HTC built a UI that is surprisingly iPhone like. That has been it's selling point. This will end in either HTC redesigning their interface or HTC licensing technology from Apple [which I doubt will happen].
Wrong. You can choose to litigate your patents at any time during the period they are in effect. There is no provision that says you have to maintain them through vigilance. You are thinking of trademarks which is a different IP beast altogether.
I will bow to your superior knowledge on this, but I thought there was something in the Apple/Microsoft/Xerox case in the 80s that prevented Xerox from requiring licensing on their graphical UI patents.
Great, now I have to do a lit search to clear my own mind... THANKS APPLE
Serious question: Is there an example of an original Google creation that is successful in the marketplace?
Search? Maps? Do those count?
Serious question: Is there an example of an original Google creation that is successful in the marketplace?
You mean other than Google Search, Map/Reduce, Google Maps and Ad Sense?
I will bow to your superior knowledge on this, but I thought there was something in the Apple/Microsoft/Xerox case in the 80s that prevented Xerox from requiring licensing on their graphical UI patents.
Great, now I have to do a lit search to clear my own mind... THANKS APPLE
Hehe . . . I know the feeling.