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This just in... Apple is calling the S4 an infringing product.

This was not unexpected.

Just as samsung added the ip5 to its patent dispute.

You have to realize these court proceedings take years, by the time a ban is granted on a product its been out for over 2 years and is effectively at the end of its life anyway. Its pointless to go after really.
 
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It's obvious that Apple can't compete against all of these new Android devices. After all, they haven't a good idea since the iPhone 3GS, every other phone after that including the new iPhone 5 has been nothing but rehashed Apple BS.

While the Android world has been innovating, Apple wasn't. So now Apple is waking up to the fact that they are losing the war. But instead of doing something smart, like I don't know... actually coming up with new ideas, they are suing Android manufactures. I'm sorry Apple, I'm sorry that you're butthurt over the fact that the rest of the world is getting better than you are but that's way the cookie crumbles.

You have to keep innovating, you have to keep changing, or your competition is going to do that for you and put you out of business.
 
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Not really that much of a surprise, is it? After all the S4 shares many of the S3's features that were included in the original action, so it's hardly a shock that any new device using them would also be included.

As to accusations of "lack of innovation"... I think you'll find that is exactly what both parties are contesting in their respective suits e.g. they did the innovating and the other infringed on the patents supposedly protecting these.
 
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This is the only option Apple has to battle Samsung. Apple knows they can't beat them in sales. The bad thing is, the courts have a history of siding with Apple.

Apple is scared. They are left to bullying the competitors.

I had to use an iPhone 4 for a few weeks while waiting for the GS4 to become available. I nearly went insane using it. Not a day went by that I wasn't muttering about how I hated the phone. People used to say I didn't like iPhone because I hadn't tried it. Well I tried it, and was never so happy in my life as when I came back to Android.

Apple phones are inferior in my opinion.
 
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lol This was a sure thing and no surprise whatsoever. I'll be curious to see if any of the current patent reforms actually make it through into law. The largest corporations in the world have spent into the 100s of billions of dollars at this point to secure their patents and to purchase existing patents and I'm thinking they will want to make those billions pay off. And kid yourself not at all, patents anymore are not so much about protecting your own work as an anticompetitive measure designed to prevent others from selling in the same market. Thats the real pay dirt, controlling the market.
 
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I had to use an iPhone 4 for a few weeks while waiting for the GS4 to become available. I nearly went insane using it. Not a day went by that I wasn't muttering about how I hated the phone. People used to say I didn't like iPhone because I hadn't tried it. Well I tried it, and was never so happy in my life as when I came back to Android.

Apple phones are inferior in my opinion.


This is how I felt when I broke down and bought an iPod Touch. Same software. I use it almost daily, and it's a constant reminder!
 
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...As to accusations of "lack of innovation"... I think you'll find that is exactly what both parties are contesting in their respective suits e.g. they did the innovating and the other infringed on the patents supposedly protecting these.

Well therein lies the problem. The innovations companies (MS, Apple and others) are trying to patent are things that you shouldn't be able to patent if you don't want a monopoly. Current US patent law is outdated and was written in a time when you built mechanical machines, there was no such thing as computer software. It was much easier to regulate making machines with no software involved.

As we've evolved with computers and software and user interfaces etc, you have many more software concepts (like using a touchscreen UI) and less patents on machines.

They need to rewrite US patent law once and for all to bring it up to speed with the computer software age. Many of the "patents" that people have now around concepts like using a touchscreen or using multiple fingers to perform a specific action are concepts and shouldn't be able to be patented. This is the only thing that drives multiple companies to compete with one another, and as you are seeing now that is precisely when you get the most innovation.

If it was just Apple making touchscreen smartphones and no one else, it would be a pretty boring marketplace with little to no innovation. With Samsung and others breathing down their neck, they can't afford to sit back and be complacent.
 
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Current US patent law is outdated

I think you've hit the nail on the head, but it's not limited to just the US - ALL patent legislation needs examining to keep it relevant and meaningful in the 21st century.

Btw, fair warning to everyone.... this topic may end up moving to the Android Lounge or even Politics & Current Affairs, depending on how it develops. No need to get any panties bunched up if it does - we simply prefer to keep device-specific forums clear of more general subject matter, and this definitely has implications beyond just the S4.

p.s. If it degenerates into a slag-fest it will be locked down. While I understand the pro-Android bias, try to remember that there's very likely a similar topic running on various iOS forums saying exactly the same about Samsung. The only winners here in the long term are the lawyers - all end-users, regardless of preference, will likely suffer to some extent.
 
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I think you've hit the nail on the head, but it's not limited to just the US - ALL patent legislation needs examining to keep it relevant and meaningful in the 21st century...

Right, I only singled out US Patent law as that is where most of the meaningful patents are registered. While it's something that should happen and frankly needs to happen, seeing how paralyzed politicians are to get anything accomplished in this hyper partisan age I frankly don't see this happening in my lifetime, and I'm only 34 lol.
 
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It's obvious that Apple can't compete against all of these new Android devices. After all, they haven't a good idea since the iPhone 3GS, every other phone after that including the new iPhone 5 has been nothing but rehashed Apple BS.

While the Android world has been innovating, Apple wasn't. So now Apple is waking up to the fact that they are losing the war. But instead of doing something smart, like I don't know... actually coming up with new ideas, they are suing Android manufactures. I'm sorry Apple, I'm sorry that you're butthurt over the fact that the rest of the world is getting better than you are but that's way the cookie crumbles.

You have to keep innovating, you have to keep changing, or your competition is going to do that for you and put you out of business.

Why do they have to reinvent when the Iphone was almost perfect from the beginning when Android devices have not been till recently? Seriously dude. The iPhone is a great device, and for ONE device, vs MANY Android devices, it sells damn well. It out sells any ONE Android device out there. And now that T-Mobile sells them, probably will see even more sales. They aren't far behind all the Android sales combined.
 
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Why do they have to reinvent when the Iphone was almost perfect from the beginning when Android devices have not been till recently? Seriously dude. The iPhone is a great device, and for ONE device, vs MANY Android devices, it sells damn well. It out sells any ONE Android device out there. And now that T-Mobile sells them, probably will see even more sales. They aren't far behind all the Android sales combined.

While is true that the individual iPhone sells more than an individual android device, it's not a level field because there only one up to date iPhone per year where there are multiple updated Android phones a year and in many case multiple from the same oem like the s4 and the upcoming note 3. This thus makes it unfair to make a direct comparison between the two. Apples (literally) to oranges.
 
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I really don't see where all this emotion is coming from over this announcement.

I agree. This is going to go on forever until someone wins a monstrous lawsuit, or the courts get sick of the fighting and tell them to stop crying about it and dismiss all cases. We all know, even though it's needed, that copyright and trademark law isn't going to change anytime soon.
 
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We know that the patent and trademark office is messed up.

What made me really think it was messed up was when I was in a restaurant today and I saw a poster on the wall for an advertisement that they had for a product featuring an ice cream cone. On the ice cream cone there was the phrase "Eat-It-All".

OK, so I looked at it and shrugged my shoulders until I read at the bottom of the poster that the phrase "Eat-It-All" was a registered trademark of Kelloggs company. Seriously? That's trademarked!? It's just three words! What crackpot granted that trademark!? Damn, the patent and trademark office is seriously messed up!
 
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While is true that the individual iPhone sells more than an individual android device, it's not a level field because there only one up to date iPhone per year where there are multiple updated Android phones a year and in many case multiple from the same oem like the s4 and the upcoming note 3. This thus makes it unfair to make a direct comparison between the two. Apples (literally) to oranges.

Not really...The iPhone sells more than the S3/S4/Note/Note2 individually. It sells more than the Note 2. It is more reasonable to compare phone model to phone model instead of comparing phone model to phone model(S).
 
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I also find the thread lop-sided. Samsung isn't the victim here. They are guilty in filing patent claims as well. Nokia, HTC, Motorola. They all do it. It just isn't publicized.
Well, when your competition is waving around patents like nuclear weapons how else are you supposed to protect yourself?

I agree, Apple isn't the only offender here. Samsung, Nokia, HTC, and a number of others are guilty of the same behavior. But it does seem, at least to me, that Apple has a vendetta against anything that's not an iPhone in the mobile space. It's like they can't stand having competition in the market and that they want to be only device in the market and they will stop at nothing to make sure that that happens. Apple is not in any way a good corporate citizen.

That is the kind of behavior that I can't stand. And that is the chief reason why I will NEVER buy another Apple product EVER in my life! And I will continue to convince people that I encounter to not buy Apple products because of that reason.
 
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