Great Artists Steal

I think Steve Jobs is probably wishing he never said that.

The above video was taken from an interview that Steve Jobs did back in 1996 for the documentary entitled "Triumph of the Nerds". It is pretty clear now that Steve Jobs has changed his mind on whether or not "Great artist steal". Especially after Steve filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nokia, and HTC.

Then again, perhaps Steve is ok when the stealing is done by him and not by others. Let’s face it. The iPhone is a revolutionary device that uses a lot of technology that other people created, but never implemented as well as Apple did. Everything from multi-touch on down was in another device prior to the iPhone. But yet Apple has seemingly taken possession of those technologies.

Perhaps the line is better stated, “Great artist steal and prevent others from stealing back.” Hopefully this will all be resolved shortly.

VIA

Apple Sues HTC

I wonder if this has anything to do with Apple's Google hatred.

Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has filed a patent lawsuit against HTC for patent infringement. According to Gizmodo, Apple has filed a suit against HTC citing over 20 cases of patent infringement related to the iPhone’s user interface and hardware. This suit follows Apples successful suit against Nokia just a couple of weeks ago. Just what these patients are referring to is beyond me. Every time I try to read the list of patents my eyes start glazing over, so we’re going to have to wait till some lawyers get a look at the list of patents. But from what I can tell Apples patients sound kind of vague.

I'll give you an example. Here is the first patent on the list;

The ‘331 Patent, entitled "Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States," was duly and legally issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Your guess is as good as mine what this patent means.

Whatever the case, Apple appears to be taking this action rather seriously, filing for an injunction to prevent HTC from selling their phones in the US. Pretty well all of HTC’s Windows Mobile and Android based phones fall under this patent suit, which is kind of troubling. Strangely enough though, Google is not in this lawsuit, even though it seems that Apple is taking aim at their Android operating system.

I really hate patent lawsuits. To be honest I don't know how someone could really patent a process. Sure if it was wholesale copying of Apples hardware or operating system I would agree with Apple. But this just sounds like a monopolist wanting to hold on to his business. I can understand Apple needing to protect their patents. I just believe that Apple probably shouldn't have gotten some of these patients in the first place.

Hopefully, some of these patients will get struck down. Apple needs competition in order to keep them innovative.