Steve Jobs' legal war on Google, Android rages on

[MisterP]

By David Sarno, Los Angeles Times

The campaign is rooted in Jobs' belief that Google and mobile device manufacturers that use its Android software copied key design and technology features from Apple's iPhone and iPad.

"I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this," Jobs told author Walter Isaacson for his recently released biography. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product."

...

"Unless they can keep Android at bay, they cannot sustain their incredibly high margins," said Florian Mueller, a patent specialist who has been closely following the disputes. "They'll have to compete with much lower-priced devices with essentially the same features coming out of China and other places."

...

"Some of the revelations from the Jobs biography suggest that this is almost a religious war," said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Co. The question is whether Apple's battle is based on a rigorous legal analysis of company's patent holdings or part of a personal vendetta by the company's late co-founder, he said.

http://mobile.latimes.com/p.p?a=rp&m=b&postId=1115476&curAbsIndex=2&resultsUrl=DID%3D6%26DFCL%3D1000%26DSB%3Drank%2523desc%26DBFQ%3DuserId%253A7%26DL.w%3D%26DL.d%3D10%26DQ%3DsectionId%253A6220%26DPS%3D0%26DPL%3D3

and of course there's mirroring countersuits by the second parties

[dipsydoodle]

1. Last I read

Samsung had overtaken their sales. Sometimes best to just deal with a situation and move on.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. He love to borrow from others but cursed those he thought borrowed from him

[Atman]

4. Yawn.

Yeah...where are those others? What did they do? "Whaaa! I thought of it first!" Dude, I got a million stories like that...I started a dot-com in 1999 (still in business today, even after the 2000 crash), and many of the common features I envisioned and pitched to my investors are part of every dot-com now. I couldn't make it happen then, but others did. The whining cry-babies who wish they were Steve Jobs can STFU...if they had what it took, they'd had taken it. Jobs had what it took -- intelligence, vision and tenacity.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. And now he's dead 'cause he was too smart to listen to his doctors.

[rjj621]

6. Exactly

iPhone has several features added over the years that have been available since Android was first released on the G1. Some ideas, Apple has improved on but still taken from someone else. That's the way it works and what helps drive competition which ultimately benefits the consumer. Apple has no problems "borrowing" from others but if something is too close to their ideas it's "stealing".
I also don't think you should be able to patent software or something ridiculous like swiping your finger to unlock. Just a small part of the many reasons I refuse to ever own an Apple product.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Part of the problem lies with patent officials allowing patents for that which is obvious to anyone

in the field.

[Gamow]

3. Absent Jobs, these tech companies would still being suing each other over copyright claims...

Microsoft has successfully sued Android phone makers (HTC and one other I think). M$ gets something like five bucks for every android HTC phone sold.

[emulatorloo]

5. Yep, That's reality. Companies protect their copyrigh. But facts get in the way of a DU Apple Bash

Lots and lots of negative spin in that article too.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. The haters and the fanbois...never ending source of amusement

[Gamow]

11. Not an apple fanboy, I'm a copyright-law hater.

My point was that absent Jobs and his personal vendetta, not much would change.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. Patents and copyrights are not the same thing.

[Gamow]

13. Too right. I meant patent laws in that case, but I do hate both...

and I create intellectual property for a living. I just don't think a teenager should go to court for "stealing" my (infinitely copy-able) property.

[soapboxtalk]

9. Jobs is old news

Old ideas for an old century. As much as Jobs may have impacted the 20th century, his model of business simply doesn't translate.

His model was always maintain a niche of customers and make sure every bit of your technology is a secret. Apple has profited very well running this way, but their operation is about to get ground into nothing.

Apple is going to get buried when they see what open sourced software is going to be capable of. Android is tapping into a million potential developers to improve their software through trial and error, rather than keeping their code a secret and relying on their engineers to improve it.

Apple is doing all it can to fight back, but open source software is the way of the future.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. I've heard that nonsense for at least a decade

On this board repeatedly 7 or 8 years ago, from all the desperate Apple naysayers. I touted the stock when it was below $20 and was laughed at by the "overpriced hardware, blah, blah blah" dullards.

I sincerely hope you don't handicap anything for a living. Whatever the obvious angle is at the time, Apple is well beyond it. You recite obvious. Best of luck.