Palm to Apple: We'll "vigorously" defend our IP, too
Facing a potential legal showdown with Apple over its new multi-touch Pre handset, Palm this week vowed to fight back tooth and nail.
During Apple's fiscal first quarter earnings call Wednesday a Wall Street analyst probed company executives on how they planned to maintain their lead in the smartphone sector.Â*
Acting chief executive Tim Cook quickly replied by saying it's difficult to judge products that haven't entered the market yet, while the iPhone has sold more than 17 million units.Â*He added that Apple is confident with where it is competitively, adding, "As long as [competitors] don't rip off our [intellectual property], and if they do, we'll go after anybody that does."
Asked if he was referring his comments to Palm, Cook's said:
I'm not talking about any specific company.Â* I'm just making a general statement.Â* We think competition is good, it makes us better.Â* But we will not stand to have our IP ripped off.Â* We'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal.Â* I don't know that I can be more clear than that.
The PreÂ*made its debut at this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a multi-touch interface that lets users pinch their fingers together and spread them apart on the screen to navigate websites.Â* It appears Apple has targeted that aspect of Palm's yet-unreleased Pre, which has a slide-out keyboard and a new operating system called webOS.
"Apple was not the first to do multi-touch," Palm spokeswoman Lynn FoxÂ*toldÂ*Reuters.Â* She argued that multi-touch has been around for more than 20 years.
"Palm has been building its own intellectual property portfolio for 15 years, and we will defend it vigorously, if necessary," she added.
In separate comments to All Things Digital, she said: "We have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space.Â* If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves."
Many analysts believe the Pre must succeed in order for Palm to survive.Â* The company now has former Apple employees in key positions, including Jon Rubinstein, once the head of hardware engineering for the Cupertino-based iPhone maker. Â*
Rubinstein helped lead the creation of the iPod and development of the iMac at Apple, and most likely had some knowledge of the iPhone. Â*Palm's Director of Software Chris McKillop also worked on the iPhone and iPod development teams.
While those two are the most recognizable, they're not the only Palm employees to cross over. Â*Those connections may play a major role in any potential legal battle between the two companies.
Following Cook's comments on Wednesday, shares of Palm dipped 3.4 percent to $7.57.Â*Analysts pointed to Cook's comments as a likely cause.
If Apple elects to take legal action, it could happen soon.Â* The Pre is expected to hit the market sometime in the first half of this year.
During Apple's fiscal first quarter earnings call Wednesday a Wall Street analyst probed company executives on how they planned to maintain their lead in the smartphone sector.Â*
Acting chief executive Tim Cook quickly replied by saying it's difficult to judge products that haven't entered the market yet, while the iPhone has sold more than 17 million units.Â*He added that Apple is confident with where it is competitively, adding, "As long as [competitors] don't rip off our [intellectual property], and if they do, we'll go after anybody that does."
Asked if he was referring his comments to Palm, Cook's said:
I'm not talking about any specific company.Â* I'm just making a general statement.Â* We think competition is good, it makes us better.Â* But we will not stand to have our IP ripped off.Â* We'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal.Â* I don't know that I can be more clear than that.
The PreÂ*made its debut at this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a multi-touch interface that lets users pinch their fingers together and spread them apart on the screen to navigate websites.Â* It appears Apple has targeted that aspect of Palm's yet-unreleased Pre, which has a slide-out keyboard and a new operating system called webOS.
"Apple was not the first to do multi-touch," Palm spokeswoman Lynn FoxÂ*toldÂ*Reuters.Â* She argued that multi-touch has been around for more than 20 years.
"Palm has been building its own intellectual property portfolio for 15 years, and we will defend it vigorously, if necessary," she added.
In separate comments to All Things Digital, she said: "We have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space.Â* If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves."
Many analysts believe the Pre must succeed in order for Palm to survive.Â* The company now has former Apple employees in key positions, including Jon Rubinstein, once the head of hardware engineering for the Cupertino-based iPhone maker. Â*
Rubinstein helped lead the creation of the iPod and development of the iMac at Apple, and most likely had some knowledge of the iPhone. Â*Palm's Director of Software Chris McKillop also worked on the iPhone and iPod development teams.
While those two are the most recognizable, they're not the only Palm employees to cross over. Â*Those connections may play a major role in any potential legal battle between the two companies.
Following Cook's comments on Wednesday, shares of Palm dipped 3.4 percent to $7.57.Â*Analysts pointed to Cook's comments as a likely cause.
If Apple elects to take legal action, it could happen soon.Â* The Pre is expected to hit the market sometime in the first half of this year.
Comments
Apple has said *nothing* about Palm or the Palm pre and nothing about Palm violating their patents, that was all the work of the "industry analysts." These same industry analysts that are responsible for the 3-4% drop in Palm stock are the ones responsible for the huge drop in Apple's share value by means of all that nonsense about Steve Jobs' health.
Where do these guys get off making these absurd unsupported statements that send stock values plunging all over the world?
Why is the SEC willing to investigate Apple and read internal company memos etc., in a bid to find out what Steve "really" said to the board about his health, but any "Joe the Tech Analyst" can set up shop on the web and push any rumour or story they want with total immunity from any kind of prosecution?
They seem to be in a very vulnerable position to me.
Sometimes companies deliberately and knowingly take calculated risks by blatantly using patents that are not theirs in the hopes of forcing some licensing or other negotiation that will enable a compromise...(such as the iPhone name episode that Apple dared Cisco in...)
In this case, though, Palm is really playing with fire because there's no way Apple will allow cannibalization of any part of the iPhone which has been a revolutionary product that Apple has confidently announced is "years ahead of the competition".
Apple cannot and will not concede even an inch to Palm which cannot afford any protracted litigation. It's also very likely that Apple would get a temporary preliminary injunction against Palm from the outset, which would stop any sales of the pre and prevent it from even getting to market.
The webOS user interface has the iPhone beat in many areas ...
I keep hearing people say this, but I've never heard anyone back it up.
How are webapps, which also run on the iPhone "beating" the iPhone? How is inbox integration or IM integration, a big competitive deal when it can be imitated on the iPhone by Apple in an afternoon's coding and already is on the iPhone in the form of some third party apps?
I think the pre is the first serious challenger to iPhone, but to imply that it "beats" iPhone as many are doing is a bit disingenuous IMO. It's not even out of beta for cripes sake, and no one has really even used it yet.
The webOS user interface has the iPhone beat in many areas
Yes because much of it is copied from iPhone User Interface. I wouldn't worry too much about Palm. They lost their hype long time ago. They might get 5% of the customers back.
I keep hearing people say this, but I've never heard anyone back it up.
How are webapps, which also run on the iPhone "beating" the iPhone? How is inbox integration or IM integration, a big competitive deal when it can be imitated on the iPhone by Apple in an afternoon's coding and already is on the iPhone in the form of some third party apps?
I think the pre is the first serious challenger to iPhone, but to imply that it "beats" iPhone as many are doing is a bit disingenuous IMO. It's not even out of beta for cripes sake, and no one has really even used it yet.
I own an iPhone and have only seen the pre in demos but I was impressed with both the hardware and the OS/user interface on the pre. I would like to see similar improvements on the iPhone. That's all I'm saying, I'm definitely not in the market for a new mobile device primarily because I love the seamless integration with all of the other Apple hardware and service I use daily.
Yes because much of it is copied from iPhone User Interface. I wouldn't worry too much about Palm. They lost their hype long time ago. They might get 5% of the customers back.
I see nothing in WebOS that looks like it was copied from the iphone. Multitasking, synergy? A gesture area that extends below the screen itself, a "wave" dock? Yeah totally ripped from the iphone (sacrasm). :rollsyes:
The only thing Apple might have them on is the similar multitouch. What people do not understand is that Apple is just running one implementation of multitouch which happens to be named "multi-touch".
I wish they would fight it out so that the public would learn more about that group of technologies. And it wouldn't just be Apple vs Palm. It will be Apple vs Palm's financial backers.
I keep hearing people say this, but I've never heard anyone back it up.
How are webapps, which also run on the iPhone "beating" the iPhone? How is inbox integration or IM integration, a big competitive deal when it can be imitated on the iPhone by Apple in an afternoon's coding and already is on the iPhone in the form of some third party apps?
I think the pre is the first serious challenger to iPhone, but to imply that it "beats" iPhone as many are doing is a bit disingenuous IMO. It's not even out of beta for cripes sake, and no one has really even used it yet.
I'm curious about this too. I don't debate the idea, I just want some data on the areas that people feel that the Pre bests Apple.
PS: I'm glad to see Palm moving away from WinMo-based devices and having a product that is exciting for what it is. I figured bedding with MS would be the death of them, but I hope they rise again.
... I'm glad to see Palm moving away from WinMo-based devices and having a product that is exciting for what it is. I figured bedding with MS would be the death of them, but I hope they rise again.
Agreed. Sadly however, Palm being acquired by Microsoft is also a likely option right now although I would rather see Riim do it if anyone does.
Apple has said *nothing* about Palm or the Palm pre and nothing about Palm violating their patents, that was all the work of the "industry analysts."
Apple's COO Tim Cook made a couple of related brief comments about "going after" those who "rip off our IP" during their quarterly conference call Wednesday when asked about the Palm Pre.
It's all a bunch of posturing. Palm is correct, multi-touch is nothing new. Both Apple and Palm have a bunch of patents from the early days of handheld devices, so they will inevitably reach some kind of agreement, if something they already have in place doesn't apply.
It's all a bunch of posturing. Palm is correct, multi-touch is nothing new. Both Apple and Palm have a bunch of patents from the early days of handheld devices, so they will inevitably reach some kind of agreement, if something they already have in place doesn't apply.
It's not posturing, companies should and will defend their IP. You can't just throw all multi-touch together as one as the method can be very different. Apple's capacitance touchscreen tech was purchased and it's a patent that they need to hold onto vigorously as all other current touchscreen tech, IMO, sucks in comparison. The only downfall of Apple's method is that you can't wear gloves or have wet finger when using it.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
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* It appears Apple has targeted that aspect of Palm's yet-unreleased Pre, which has a slide-out keyboard and a new operating system called webOS.
Am I missing something?
Apple's COO Tim Cook made a couple of related brief comments about "going after" those who "rip off our IP" during their quarterly conference call Wednesday when asked about the Palm Pre.
Yes, but he didn't mention Palm specifically. He said he was talking about ANYONE. The analysts are the ones that brought up Palm, not Apple, and then they extrapolated from Cook's response and said "Apple is targeting Palm."
Yes, but he didn't mention Palm specifically. He said he was talking about ANYONE. The analysts are the ones that brought up Palm, not Apple, and then they extrapolated from Cook's response and said "Apple is targeting Palm."
Wasn't Tim's statement a response to a question asked about the Pre? I don't see how that's an extrapolation unless you're saying that Tim Cook wasn't answering the question that was asked.
The only downfall of Apple's method is that you can't wear gloves or have wet finger when using it.
That is exactly how I use the iPhone with gloves on. I lick the fingertip of the glove, which works just well enough to answer the phone but not much more than that, otherwise I agree, that is a disadvantage of the capacitance implementation. Salt water also works if you happen to have any handy.