i don’t think you should post anything without looking at the Gizmodo link. NookSurfer, clearly has not seen the link, most of the patents are to do with software and touch screen technology … apple has almost nothing (the patents have nothing to do with appearance).

apple are very aggressive when it comes to lawsuits and its about time that they got some payback. apple accuse Microsoft of having a monopoly (which they did but legitimately tried to encourage competition), now apple has monopoly (iTunes) and very purposely breach completion legislation all over the world. recently however apple has lost several suits and jail broken iPhones etc ARE NOW LEGAL…. YAY, if you still need proof that apple are evil when it comes to law …. THEY EVEN TRIED TO SUE THE BEATLES OVER THEIR RECORD LOGO, which apple actually stole from them in the first place with a written contract, so the case lasted about 5 minuets and apple were then counter sued … which is happening here.

the case focuses against HTC and Google mostly, and the touch screen patents are things like gestures ie moving the finger across screen to unlock etc. HTC were one of the first to pioneer this technology ie before apple, also pinch gestures for zooming in and out well a quote from wiki “A breakthrough occurred in 1991, when Pierre Wellner published a paper on his multi-touch “Digital Desk”, which supported multi-finger and pinching motions” so no case there ITS NOT APPLES IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE so they cant patent it and they didn’t buy it from this guy.

while most of the suits don’t have merit some may as they are VERY general (perhaps to general to stand up in court) ie the patent 7,633,706 “automated response to and sensing of user activity in portable devices” this is my favorite because nothing is automated it reacts to user input ie i have to touch the phone to get the thing to work – bar the voice communication software but that’s not apple’s… in fact if you scrubbed the words “in portable devices” from this patent they could go after anything … no really every time you try to get in you car with the key or unlock button the car “automatically senses” the user and responds by unlocking the door, unless i’m stealing it and smash a window … i better hope there is no car alarm or that will infringe upon this too!

for the most part apples case wont succeed but one or two patents may be slipped though so this case can go either way

anyway HTC have launched a counter suit of 5 patents and even released a nice little 2.5 min video on their website documenting their history and innovations, which clearly counteract several of apples claims.

most of the suits don’t have merit some may as they are VERY general (perhaps to general to stand up in court) ie the patent 7,633,706 “automated response to and sensing of user activity in portable devices” this is my favorite because nothing is automated it reacts to user input ie i have to touch the phone to get the thing to work – bar the voice communication software but that’s not apple’s

… in fact if you scrubbed the words “in portable devices” from this patent they could go after anything … no really every time you try to get in you car with the key or unlock button the car “automatically senses” the user and responds by unlocking the door, unless i’m stealing it and smash a window … i better hope there is no car alarm or that will infringe upon this too!