Apple told rivals to back off multitouch back in January
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This article contains unofficial information.
Back in 2009, Apple COO Tim Cook told analysts in a conference call that Apple would not put up with having its patents infringed upon. At the time, the thought was that Apple was trying to keep multitouch off the just revealed Palm Pre which was considered a real threat to the iPhone back then (seems funny now). While many handset makers have kept multitouch off their phones, a 358 page patent covering most of the iPhone's UI, including multitouch and the use of gestures, is Apple's main ammunition and is the power that the company now holds to have the other handset makers cowering in the corner.
sources: Geek
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28 Comments
1. warhed posted on 20 Oct 2010, 01:45 0 0
apple is poison to the industry. who benefits when a lot of good phones offer touch/multitouch screens? WE DO! the consumers. apple needs to change things up with their phone. just because the industry is now keeping up/ passing apple the only thing they can do is sue! thats BS!
3. herbiederb posted on 09 Mar 2010, 16:22 0 0
And then the sue the small handset maker. Its MS and Google that write the software. Cant wait to see those 2 giants go against Apple.
5. htc_prep posted on 09 Mar 2010, 16:48 0 0
ill have my pop corn popped and my front row seat fandangoed for that. all apple is good for is brainwashing and bullying... they remind me of the force behind big brother in the book "1984" (i know it should be underlined)
8. newfreedom posted on 09 Mar 2010, 18:19 0 0
Apple is misusing US patent system to stifle competition. US patent system is broken and needs to be modified to redefine what should really constitute patentable inventions. US court system is not about dispensing justice. Unless God gives me the ultimate power of a tyrant for the next 30 years to fix these things, I would love to start three independent people's class-action suits against Apple, USPTO and US court system for their share of misconducts against our society.
21. DonkeyPunched posted on 10 Mar 2010, 05:24 0 0
Well, even though it may seem unfair in certain angles, place Apple in your hands. What if you were running Apple right now and you have companies in the competition surrounding and possibly about to outrun you? Apple is pretty damn smart to patent multitouch (and remember, it isn't just the iPhone that has multitouch in Apple's products). As you said, people want to use multitouch because it is a very cool feature...so that is obviously something that Apple can have exclusively to its products. Think about this logically, not personally.
26. sleepyjohnny posted on 10 Mar 2010, 14:33 0 0
instead of pattenting something so simple, they should innovate technologies that will blow competetion away and patent those. apple is actually being dumb lazy, and quite frankly being a little baby about it.
2. athiel021 posted on 09 Mar 2010, 16:19 0 0
Guess I'll be trying to get an Android phone ASAP just in case this goes through. One decision this debacle has cemented though? I'm never buying an Apple product.
4. Phullofphil posted on 09 Mar 2010, 16:26 0 0
i think multitouch should not be able to be patent. Its to broad of an idea. What about other makers with multi such as the zune. Motorola and so on. I think it would be like making the idea of puting ink on a peic of paper through the help of a machine patented
7. biggles posted on 09 Mar 2010, 16:54 0 0
The problem is that the US patent office is a joke. They're overloaded and they'd grant you a patent on wiping your a$$ if you submitted it.
12. warhed posted on 09 Mar 2010, 19:48 0 0
@biggles, watch out you might get sue by apple. i think they already have a patent on wiping your a$$! lol
6. biggles posted on 09 Mar 2010, 16:52 0 0
Seriously, how are Apple products not virus-laden and targeted by hackers and such? I mean, forget Microsoft and Gates. Jobs embodies evil and greed, and should be in any rogue programmer's cross-hairs. Kinda makes you wonder if Apple doesn't spend all that excess money they charge for their products on covert operations against other operating systems to make themselves look better.
9. DrewVL posted on 09 Mar 2010, 18:28 0 0
I thought Apple is not the one who invented Multitouch?
11. sinfulta posted on 09 Mar 2010, 19:42 0 0
They weren't. I posted awhile back on the company that actually started touch screen and mulitouch. I can't remember what they're names were now. I am sure you can wiki multitouch and you'll see the answers there. Apple was not the inventor of Multi-touch.
18. o7o posted on 09 Mar 2010, 23:17 0 0
Researchers from Toronto University were the first to use Multi-touch at 1982, and they also were the first to use it with capacitive touch screens at 1985. And the gestures they use now were made by someone called Jeff Han at 2006. So Apple has no right to sue others on multi-touch!!
10. nokia_fan_172 posted on 09 Mar 2010, 18:28 0 0
apple has a problem with other companies using multi-touch, but how much of nokia's patents are they infringing on?? is that not a problem?
13. ILOVEtechnology (unregistered) posted on 09 Mar 2010, 19:56 0 0
I hope Apple wins. They invented the great iphone and people are trying to copy it! Hope the billions come to APPLE!
20. ekie84 posted on 10 Mar 2010, 00:23 0 0
Apple Inc. lists "Multi-Touch" on their page of trademarks,[10] however, this was only added some time after October 2007,[11] and Apple's page does not claim that any government recognises their trademark.
22. DonkeyPunched posted on 10 Mar 2010, 05:28 0 0
Do you think maybe they are referring to the ways multitouch is used? I mean, I know some phones have multitouch, right? Of course, I mean besides HTC phones...I haven't heard of any other lawsuits on this. Maybe HTC is going far? This post isn't enough to inform us on the exact details. I'm sure Apple must have good reason in suing them.
14. tuminatr posted on 09 Mar 2010, 20:54 0 0
this is not the first time Apple has done this, Google it, remember the lawsuit when Microsoft released windows 3.0 Apple sued them claiming they invented the GUI. Microsoft won because apple itself copied the idea. These types of lawsuits are silly oh and don't forget that when the Iphone was released they did not get permission from cisco systems that held the trademark "iphone" apple did not care they released it anyway I don't know how apple gets away with it, they are just as bad if not worse than the others. But somehow their s*&t don't stink
23. DonkeyPunched posted on 10 Mar 2010, 05:30 0 0
I hope you remember that Cisco pulled up a lawsuit against Apple and they pretty much dropped it because Apple said it was silly, which it was. Who was using Cisco's internet phone "iphone"? No one. It was definitely a silly lawsuit and they gave it up, obviously cuz when you type iPhone.com now, it isn't Cisco's site anymore.
