Apple hit with patent infringement suit over iTunes, movie trailers

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Droplets Inc. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple accusing the company of violating patents related to interactive links to applications on its website, movie trailer site and iTunes.



The Plano, Tex.-based software company filed its suit in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas, a district known for rapid resolution in favor of rights holders in infringement cases. Droplets boasts clients including IBM, Borland and PricewaterhouseCoopers.



Droplets was founded in March 2000 with the goal of meeting the needs of "enterprises who seek more efficient ways to deliver highly functional and scalable applications over the Internet."



The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 6,687,745, entitled "System and method for delivering a graphical user interface of remote applications over a thin bandwidth connection." Droplet describes the invention as a method for remotely delivering "interactive links for presenting applications." The company filed for the patent in June 2000 and was granted in Feb. 2004.



According to the complaint, Apple's own website, its movie trailer site, iTunes and "other web applications" are in violation of the patent.







Apple has over the years faced numerous lawsuits over the iTunes interface and software. Last year, a company accused Apple of violating a video production-related patent via iTunes.



The company is the world's most-sued tech company. According to Apple, patent infringement suits, regardless of merit consume "significant time and expense."



A number of technology companies have taken to calling for patent reform as legal disputes have increased. Last week, the U.S. government passed a reform bill that will overhaul the nation's patent system.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member
    I think I will sue apple for using the color blue in OS X. I liked the color blue way before Apple existed. I have rights too you know.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    how long has the www been going now? sounds like an awful lot of prior art, not to mention RDP on windows server or thin clients.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,631member
    iTunes does not deliver a graphical interface over a thin internet connection.



    iTunes apps are not remote applications.



    Without reading more, does anyone else see any holes?
  • Reply 4 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by irnchriz View Post


    sounds like an awful lot of prior are, not to mention RDP on windows server or thin clients.



    My first read of your typo was "prior arse", which seems appropriate, since it's clear from the venue and the ridiculous nature of the patent that these particular trolls must have been arses long before becoming patent trolls.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    Pay up Apple. Why does IBM license the tech, even as Apple refuses?
  • Reply 6 of 12
    kreshkresh Posts: 379member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    Pay up Apple. Why does IBM license the tech, even as Apple refuses?



    Quote:

    Droplets boasts clients including IBM, Borland and PricewaterhouseCoopers.



    They are clients of Droplets but not necessarily a licensee of this patent, they could be licensing other technology.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    diddydiddy Posts: 282member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    Pay up Apple. Why does IBM license the tech, even as Apple refuses?



    Because Apple doesn?t feel it infringes? Just because somebody pays a license doesn?t legitimize anything or mean anything of importance.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    So they're, basically, patenting the Internet... what?
  • Reply 9 of 12
    geekdadgeekdad Posts: 1,131member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by benanderson89 View Post


    So they're, basically, patenting the Internet... what?



    your right as it looks today....but it didn't always look this way......Its like Apple patenting the "look and feel" of the iPad....
  • Reply 10 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by geekdad View Post


    your right as it looks today....but it didn't always look this way......Its like Apple patenting the "look and feel" of the iPad....



    No I'm pretty sure the Internet has had a method for delivering a GUI with a backend database for a long, long time now. AOL Messenger springs to mind for one of the earliest methods using the OSCAR protocol. Pizza hut had a little HTTP web app in 1994 to order Pizza delivery for pitties sake
  • Reply 11 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by benanderson89 View Post


    No I'm pretty sure the Internet has had a method for delivering a GUI with a backend database for a long, long time now. AOL Messenger springs to mind for one of the earliest methods using the OSCAR protocol. Pizza hut had a little HTTP web app in 1994 to order Pizza delivery for pitties sake



    Agreed. Not to mention X11 being implemented a decade before with "remote apps", and for the movie trailer parts... Quicktime 3.x/4.x "wired movies" and Quicktime QTi format circa 1998-1999
  • Reply 12 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by huntercr View Post


    Agreed. Not to mention X11 being implemented a decade before with "remote apps", and for the movie trailer parts... Quicktime 3.x/4.x "wired movies" and Quicktime QTi format circa 1998-1999



    Flash back even further to 1981 and you have the BBC Microcomputer with the Econet interface. When I was in school in the early 90s we still used old BBC Machines. One of the Micros acted as a server with all the software pre-loaded into a set of ROM chips inside the Machine. The other systems connected via Econet and requested the applications stored in ROM and any information that needed to be stored was written to one of the floppy disk drives. Its not the Internet, but it shows that even home computers from 1981 were capable of this kind of stuff.
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