"Hey, Look, Everybody! Free Money! (Just Sue Apple!)" - Polidicks

[img]http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/freemoney2.jpg[/img] [quote]Everybody and their mother is trying to cash in on Apple’s success, or dictate the evolution of media and technology through the courts. Shameless gold diggers, grand-standing government attorneys, vindictive rivals, patent trolls and, well, good old-fashioned morons are dragging the world’s most valuable company into court to try and get their piece of Apple’s $110 billion pile of cash. You won’t believe some of the crazy lawsuits Apple is currently defending itself against. Some of these lawsuits are about small things. An 83-year-old woman is suing Apple for $1 million because she walked into a glass door at an Apple Store. She says clear glass doors represent negligence. But others are about huge issues. For example, Apple is being sued by a company called FlatWorld Interactives, which claims that all of Apple’s touch products — all of them! — from iOS devices to Magic Mouse — infringe the company’s patents. And another company called Potter Voice Technologies is suing Apple, Google and other companies over voice control of computer functions. They claim that the general idea of controlling any kind of computer with voice is their intellectual property. If these were upheld by the courts, it would mean that Apple would have to pay these two companies a percentage for every product they ship. Wouldn’t that be nice! Many of the lawsuits appear to involve attempts by Apple’s competitors to use the courts or government lawyers to slow down Apple as an industry rival. For example, the US Department of Justice is suing Apple, alleging “price fixing” for it’s “agency mode” for selling books on iBooks. So far 16 states have joined in. (Three similar lawsuits have been filed against Apple in Canada.) There’s some speculation that Amazon is behind the lawsuit. The company is named 90 times in the suit, and is the lawsuit’s sole beneficiary. Apple found a way to compete against Amazon’s strategy, which is to eliminate rivals in the market by selling books at a loss. And now Amazon may have discovered the most ironic way to compete ever: to use federal anti-trust action to protect its anti-competitive monopoly! Some current lawsuits against Apple are just byproducts of the insanely not-so-great patent system, which results in nearly every major mobile consumer electronics company suing just about every other. Samsung is suing Apple over alleged patent infringement, claiming that Apple violated eight of its patents. The lawsuit came one day after a federal court ordered the two companies to settle their patent disputes out of court. Motorola has filed a suit against Apple for the same thing, but over technology for improving the quality of phone calls. One lawsuit looks to shift the responsibility of parenting from the user to Apple. A class-action suit brought against Apple by parents alleges that some iOS apps make it easy for children to spend their parent’s money without permission. Some children’s “freemium” games, such as Draw Something and Smurfs’ Village make it easy to buy things from within the game with the click of a button. At issue is the 15-minute time limit after an iTunes password is entered on an iOS device. During that time you can buy stuff without re-entering the password, and sneaky kids are using that window to buy games and features with their parents’ credit cards. Other lawsuits are just an inevitable part of doing business with China, Inc. A Chinese company called Proview Technology Shenzhen is suing Apple over the iPad trademark. Apple bought the rights, but did so under a corporate pseudonym. Chinese authors are suing Apple for Copyright infringement because they say Apple made available for sale at least 22 Chinese works in the iBooks store that were unlicensed. In other cases, Apple is dragged into lawsuits as just another Silicon Valley company that acts like a Silicon Valley company. Apple and a gaggle of other California companies are being sued by five Silicon Valley engineers for conspiracy not to “poach” each other’s employees. Perhaps the flakiest lawsuits are those that claim features clearly labeled as “beta” don’t work right. A Canadian law firm is putting together a class-action suit that claims Siri doesn’t work right, that questions often aren’t understood, or can’t be answered. That suit follows one filed by a New York man for the same thing. Apple is being singled out here. Imagine if people filed lawsuits every time a tech company shipped a beta product that didn’t work as well as we’d all like. Long story short: Apple is currently defending itself against a huge number of lawsuits. And this is why you should tell your kids to become lawyers, not innovators. Kidding! If you’re good enough at creating awesome consumer electronics, you can afford to hire an army of lawyers to keep the gold diggers at bay. See you in court![/quote] [url=http://www.cultofmac.com/163797/hey-look-everybody-free-money-just-sue-apple/]Source: Cult of Mac.[/url] Of course, take what is said from Cult of Mac with a grain of salt.

It's like half of those lawsuits are just generally bullshit reasons and the other half is about horrendously bullshit patents! You don't fix things by fighting fire with fire and last time I checked, 2 wrongs still don't make a right.

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;35750722]It's like half of those lawsuits are just generally bullshit reasons and the other half is about horrendously bullshit patents! You don't fix things by fighting fire with fire and last time I checked, 2 wrongs still don't make a right.[/QUOTE] What about 3 wrongs?

it was coming for them sooner or later.

Man. This article is fucking hilarious.

This is a horrendously biased article from a website called "Cult of Mac" pretending that because some of the lawsuits have been silly everyone is just suing apple because of how successful and awesome they are :v:

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;35750722]It's like half of those lawsuits are just generally bullshit reasons and the other half is about horrendously bullshit patents! You don't fix things by fighting fire with fire and last time I checked, 2 wrongs still don't make a right.[/QUOTE] Adding more fire to a previous fire causes it to burn stronger but burn out quicker. So basically shit will hit a 2x speed fan, but this fan is gonna run out of power.

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;35750767]What about 3 wrongs?[/QUOTE] 2 wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do.

So when Apple sues companies for ridiculous patents like round corners its okay... But when someone else tries to sue apple for LEGITIMATE patents it is absurd and wrong?

[QUOTE=Squad;35750963]So when Apple sues companies for ridiculous patents like round corners its okay... But when someone else tries to sue apple for LEGITIMATE patents it is absurd and wrong?[/QUOTE] Well yeah. That's exactly how it is, actually.

[QUOTE=Squad;35750963]So when Apple sues companies for ridiculous patents like round corners its okay... But when someone else tries to sue apple for LEGITIMATE patents it is absurd and wrong?[/QUOTE] the distinction between ridiculous and legitimate doesn't exist in the patent system so i don't see how you can make such a distinction.

This is just ridiculous. The patent / lawsuit system needs a major overhaul. Some of the things people are suing over today are just as trivial as if I sued someone over using paper in their book.

maybe if all similar tech companies worked together to achieve a common goal instead of bickering all the fucking time we'd get somewhere nice alot faster

[QUOTE=Squad;35750963]So when Apple sues companies for ridiculous patents like round corners its okay... But when someone else tries to sue apple for LEGITIMATE patents it is absurd and wrong?[/QUOTE] These lawsuits are ridiculous, not "legitimate". From a laymans standpoint at least

So many fucking lawsuits these days, this shit is more common than breathing.

Honestly most of the patents used by apple and by other companies in suits is bullshit. Preventing anyone else from using voice, or touch, or on a lesser level round corners, or a non-cluttered interface, is silly. It stunts the growth of technology when no one else can use your ideas. Sure patent the specific code you have for touch, to protect your work, but don't stop anyone else from using it.

yes, because absolutely none of those lawsuits could be legitimate.

For this article to be complete they should talk about how Apple is suing others for even more dumb reasons (example: the android unlock bar)...

this article is just so fucking pro corporation it's hilarious wow trying to justify apple's ridiculous and illegal price undercutting techniques

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMzZQ2ho8YY[/media]

Welcome to the 21st century [highlight]SUE EVERYONE[/highlight]

[QUOTE=Bobie;35751023]maybe if all similar tech companies worked together to achieve a common goal instead of bickering all the fucking time we'd get somewhere nice alot faster[/QUOTE] monopolies are bad mmkay

implying that apple is essentially doing the same thing

[quote]Some of these lawsuits are about small things. An 83-year-old woman is suing Apple for $1 million because she walked into a glass door at an Apple Store. She says clear glass doors represent negligence.[/quote] As stupid as this is I hope she wins because Apple are a bunch of a fucking dicks and would sue for even stupider shit

[QUOTE=Bobie;35751023]maybe if all similar tech companies worked together to achieve a common goal instead of bickering all the fucking time we'd get somewhere nice alot faster[/QUOTE] Research and technology wise, maybe but cartels aren't a good thing.

The writer of that article needs to wake the fuck up. Jesus..

[img]http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/freemoney2.jpg[/img] All that money is falling from the sky I don't have to work anymore!

[QUOTE=shian;35752426][img]http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/freemoney2.jpg[/img] All that money is falling from the sky I don't have to work anymore![/QUOTE] I'm suing you for using my image that I clearly took and did not get from Cult of Mac.

i subbed my toe while reading facepunch im suing gayry now

I love how the stock images set the tone in threads now-a-days.