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Computer Handhelds

Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents

Looks like Apple’s going on the warpath, kids. Just a few months after Cupertino got into it with Nokia over phone patents, Apple’s filed suit against HTC, alleging that the company is infringing 20 patents “related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware.” Steve, you have something to say?

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Okay then. We’re pulling the complaint filing now, we’ll let you know the exact details as soon as we learn them.

Update: HTC just gave us a statement — this is apparently coming totally out of the blue for them, since Apple hasn’t even served the complaint yet.

We only learned of Apple’s actions based on your stories and Apple’s press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

Update 2: We mean it when we say this was all just filed in the past few hours — it’s not yet in the court’s systems. We just got the PDFs and put the full list of claims from the federal lawsuit below, but remember not to take the names of the patents literally or directly, since they don’t mean much. We’ll poke each one apart and tease out what’s really at stake as we go along.

Update 3: We’ve just learned that Apple submitted over 700 pages of exhibits to the District Court, which is a little nuts. In addition, the ITC complaint lists a number of specific HTC handsets as exhibits, including the Nexus One, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro2, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream / G1, myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, and Droid Eris. That’s really a full range of HTC phones, running both Android and Windows Mobile, with and without Sense / TouchFLO. Interestingly, the Android sets are specifically included because they run Android, while the WinMo sets are called out specifically for including DSP chips, not anything to do with Windows Mobile.

Apple, Complaint (PDF), ITC Complaint (PDF)

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Gadget Uncategorized

CE-Oh no he didn’t? Part LXVII: Steve Jobs lashes out at Google, calls Adobe ‘lazy’

According to a report in Wired (and a source whom the publication says “could not be named”), Steve Jobs spoke to an audience of Apple employees at a town hall in Cupertino and… pulled zero punches. If you believe what you read, Jobs tackled a handful of major issues that have been buzzing the company lately, namely its run-ins with Google on a number of topics, and the lack of Flash support in its mobile devices (most notably in the upcoming iPad). On Google, Jobs had this to say: “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” According to the attendee, another topic was brought up but Steve wouldn’t let the Google issue go, stating his thoughts on the company’s famous ‘Don’t be evil’ line. In Steve’s words? “It’s bullshit.”

Furthermore Jobs had a handful of choice words for Adobe, calling the company “lazy” and claiming that “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.” Of course, these amazing nuggets of wisdom come from a source which Engadget cannot verify, so it’s possible there are misquotes or items taken out of context, though from the sounds of things, this kind of talk falls right in line with what we’d expect from the man who said Microsoft “had no taste” and makes “really third-rate products.” We eagerly await Eric Schmidt’s response.

source Wired