Another Damn Apple Post?
When I started Backingin.com last December, I had no intention of creating an Apple blog (pro or con), but after a couple of months, "Apple" is the largest tag in the 'tag cloud'. As I stated in my first post, Backingin.com will become what it wants to become, and lately my thoughts are dominated by technology. So, staying with the tech theme, I read with interest today that Apple is suing HTC for patent infringement. HTC is one of the largest manufacturers of cellphones and the maker of the Google Nexus One smartphone. Apple is claiming that HTC violated 20 iPhone patents.
There seems to be three dogs in this fight. One one side, there are those who think it is long overdue that Apple started defending themselves against intellectual property theft. On the other side is a group that believes Apple is acting like the new Microsoft by using the courts to try to intimidate any real competition to the iPhone. Then there are those who believe that all technology companies have lost their minds and sold their souls by using patents as weapons. Place me firmly in the third camp.
The patent battles have become ridiculous. Apple and Nokia have been trading barbs over who infringed on who's patents for the past few months. According to an article on CNet's News.com, Nokia claims that Apple infringed on seven Nokia patents "in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers." I don't know who is right and who is wrong is this case, and I believe that patents are necessary to protect your company's technology, but the current state of patent litigation mania will only hurt one party: the consumer.
