Apple hit with lawsuit over over quick-boot patent first owned by LG
Apple has been hit with a new lawsuit that accuses the Mac maker of violating a patent related to quickly booting a computer operating system, an invention that was initially granted to LG electronics.
The patent in question, RE840,092, is entitled "Method for Quickly Booting a Computer System." The owner of the patent is the company Operating Systems Solutions LLC, based out of Fernandina Beach, Fla.
OSS has accused Apple of violating the patent with its Mac products running the Mac OS X operating system. Specifically, the lawsuit cites the MacBook Pro as an infringing piece of hardware, but argues that any systems running Mac OS X are in violation of the patent.
In the lawsuit, OSS acknowledges that the patent-in-question is actually a continuation of an earlier invention, U.S. Patent No. 6,434,696, first filed in 1999 and granted in 2002. The original owner of that patent was LG Electronics, of Seoul, South Korea.
The lawsuit does not indicate what involvement, if any, LG has in the complaint, or any ties it might have to the current patent. OSS revealed that the original LG patent was reissued in 2004, and issued again in February of 2008 as the OSS patent.
The patent cited in the suit describes a "quick boot process" that includes performing a power-on self test POST and saving the contents of memory and the status of devices that may be attached to a machine. It includes references to "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" boot files.
"The personal computer system may reboot quickly because of omission of execution of the initial device configuration filed and the automatic batch file," the filing reads. The original invention is credited to Seong-cheol Kang of Korea.
OSS has asked that the court find that Apple has infringed on the patent, and the Cupertino, Calif., company be required to provide lost profits and damages to the plaintiff. The complaint was filed last week in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa division.
The patent in question, RE840,092, is entitled "Method for Quickly Booting a Computer System." The owner of the patent is the company Operating Systems Solutions LLC, based out of Fernandina Beach, Fla.
OSS has accused Apple of violating the patent with its Mac products running the Mac OS X operating system. Specifically, the lawsuit cites the MacBook Pro as an infringing piece of hardware, but argues that any systems running Mac OS X are in violation of the patent.
In the lawsuit, OSS acknowledges that the patent-in-question is actually a continuation of an earlier invention, U.S. Patent No. 6,434,696, first filed in 1999 and granted in 2002. The original owner of that patent was LG Electronics, of Seoul, South Korea.
The lawsuit does not indicate what involvement, if any, LG has in the complaint, or any ties it might have to the current patent. OSS revealed that the original LG patent was reissued in 2004, and issued again in February of 2008 as the OSS patent.
The patent cited in the suit describes a "quick boot process" that includes performing a power-on self test POST and saving the contents of memory and the status of devices that may be attached to a machine. It includes references to "config.sys" and "autoexec.bat" boot files.
"The personal computer system may reboot quickly because of omission of execution of the initial device configuration filed and the automatic batch file," the filing reads. The original invention is credited to Seong-cheol Kang of Korea.
OSS has asked that the court find that Apple has infringed on the patent, and the Cupertino, Calif., company be required to provide lost profits and damages to the plaintiff. The complaint was filed last week in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa division.
Comments
I wonder if the patent really applies to anything outside of a Windows-based operating system. The original patent filing references Windows 95 (despite the document being dated 2002), mentions start up files Apple doesn't use, a boot firmware that Apple doesn't use. The patent refiling of 2008 still references Windows 95, as well as BIOS, config.sys, autoexec.bat and win.com.
Macs use an EFI firmware for their boot process, not a PC bios, your response is accurate. The references were based on windows PC technology, which Apple computers running BSD kernel have nothing to do with. This is just a frivolous suit by a south Korean based company that has close ties with Samsung. They're teaming up against Apple to fight their right to blatantly copy Apple technology and get away with it.
Seriously though, how retarded is a patent that describes a method by which a system doesn't use something?
Macs use an EFI firmware for their boot process, not a PC bios, your response is accurate. The references were based on windows PC technology, which Apple computers running BSD kernel have nothing to do with. This is just a frivolous suit by a south Korean based company that has close ties with Samsung. They're teaming up against Apple to fight their right to blatantly copy Apple technology and get away with it.
So this is actually a fly in the ointment for PC makers trying to copy MBAs not Apple.
This patent covers every system that isn't Windows as they all omit the config.sys and .bat file. World beware!!
Seriously though, how retarded is a patent that describes a method by which a system doesn't use something?
No it doesn't - it may be a silly patent, but it's not that silly.
Only one claim references config.sys and autoexec.bat
12. A The method according to claim 10, wherein said step F determines whether or not the designated boot configuration information is different from the resumed boot configuration information based on changes of CONFIG.SYS file and/or AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
Remember only a single claim needs to be infringed, but claims need to be considered in their entirety.
So this is actually a fly in the ointment for PC makers trying to copy MBAs not Apple.
It depends, the claims do reference a BIOS, but during claim construction that could be interpreted as any bootstrap ROM.
"The owner of the patent is the company Operating Systems Solutions LLC, based out of Fernandina Beach, Fla."
unless you've got proof that oss is owned/controlled by LG or koreans, to accuse koreans of being behind it sounds like simple racism
what goes around, comes around, apple is just as guilty as every other company with it's snout in the software patent trough
until the patent system is reformed to invalidate the abomination of software patents, this nonsense will continue
Isn't LG a supplier of LCD screens to Apple ?
Yes, and they're about the only major Android maker that Apple hasn't sued, so I actually rather doubt that this troll is an LG front. More likely LG sold this patent back in the past - because if it controlled a patent which it felt Apple infringed it would be keeping it ready for defensive purposes.
This is just a frivolous suit by a south Korean based company that has close ties with Samsung. They're teaming up against Apple to fight their right to blatantly copy Apple technology and get away with it.
Read the article genius. LG is not suing Apple.
what's LG/korea got to do with it?
"The owner of the patent is the company Operating Systems Solutions LLC, based out of Fernandina Beach, Fla."
unless you've got proof that oss is owned/controlled by LG or koreans, to accuse koreans of being behind it sounds like simple racism
what goes around, comes around, apple is just as guilty as every other company with it's snout in the software patent trough
until the patent system is reformed to invalidate the abomination of software patents, this nonsense will continue
How is it racism when I simply stated the country of origin? I guess calling the united states president as tar baby and coonskin is not racism but everyday politics. Come on a tech site and reference a country of origin is viewed as racism, shake my damn head.
It depends, the claims do reference a BIOS, but during claim construction that could be interpreted as any bootstrap ROM.
The patent doesn't cover "any bootsteap ROM", however - it covers the IBM BIOS system as used by legacy wintel machines based on the DOS operating system. A Macintosh doesn't even use an IBM Bios architecture, it uses Intel's extensible firmware interface which is a very different beast. Autoexe.bat is also not a cache as the patent states, but a list of items to start on boot - and if they are not in autoexe.bat, then they are never executed - be it an application or a system driver. MacOS X uses a cahce which, if not present or corrupt, is then ignored and the system then loads the required extensions from /System/Library/Extensions . This patent can't touch MacOS X, even with a deluxe poking stick.
Read the article genius. LG is not suing Apple.
The patent is owned by LG.
Edit: ok, the patent is a bit smarter than that. But still, talk about the quickest way to have firmware designers dismiss your idea...
I remember working on something very similar about 10 years ago, but using OpenBIOS. Silly me, I actually did real work on it. Guess I should have just patented the idea and waited for someone else to come along and do the work for me.
The patent is owned by LG.
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing. LG was the oringal owners of the patent, but no longer have it as per the third sentence of the article
This reminds me of when Ali G claimed that someone "nicked" his idea for Playstation 2, because when the first Playstation came out, he had the idea that they should come out with one that was faster and had better games and better graphics, and then they did!
LOL, so true
Yes, because booting the OS a few seconds faster is one of the main reasons people buy Apple computers. They rake in so much profit from this.
Fair point.
One of the reasons I own a Mac is because I never actually have to turn the bugger off, so it doesn't really matter how long it takes to boot itself up. If I didn't re-boot my PC at least once every couple of days it got slower and slower and slower.
That said, my PC used to generally decide to re-boot itself from time to time.