[LINK] Apple's HTC attack is a very dangerous game

[Kim Holburn]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/leader/0,1000002982,40067878,00.htm
> Apple's HTC attack is a very dangerous game
>
> The intellectual property in mobile phones is a mess. Most of it is  
> locked up in a set of cross-licensing agreements between the major  
> players, making it very hard for outsiders to play — except on their  
> terms. If you've ever wondered why there are so few new names in  
> handset manufacturing, one of the biggest markets on the planet,  
> then that is why.
>
> It so happened that Apple, an outsider, chose not to play it that  
> way. It didn't like what Nokia wanted as a cross-licensing deal and  
> hit back with claims of violation of its own handset IP.
>
> HTC is different: it isn't part of the inner sanctum of GSM/3G IP  
> holders, but it is the standard bearer for Android. Its crime  
> against Apple is of playing the same role to the iPhone as the PC  
> did to the Macintosh. Cheaper, quicker to innovate with and easier  
> to adopt — these are powerful things in Android's favour.
>
> Apple doesn't like those odds, but appreciates that attacking a  
> major Linux distribution with patents is incendiary. So, instead of  
> going after Google, it has asked the International Trade Commission  
> to ban imports of HTC's Android phones to the US. Such an outcome is  
> entirely possible, in the name of free trade, and sends a very  
> powerful message to other Android adopters.
>
> So far, so normal in the aggressively dirty world of corporate IP.  
> If you can stand the sight of big companies claiming moral  
> superiority while spitting in each other's soup, it's even  
> entertaining. Think of it as a natural history programme with  
> silverback gorillas ripping chunks out of each other before reaching  
> an understanding over how to divide the females and foliage.
>
> The trouble is, this goes a long way beyond smartphones. The patents  
> Apple has invoked cover some basic aspects of modern computing — and  
> many were written in the 1990s, when a great many very bad software  
> patents got accepted in the first panicky flush of defensive  
> posturing. The impetus then was to have something — anything — to  
> hit back if a rival decided to attack. The broader, and more wide- 
> ranging, the better to up the odds of making any court case too  
> expensive and risky to contemplate.
>


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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