Should Apple win current legal battles, payoff would be huge
Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi believes that Apple is confident it will win current legal battles with HTC and Samsung, and is therefore in for the long haul. Apple has "more to lose" than its rivals, Sacconaghi notes, and a whole lot to win.
Philip Elmer-Dewitt has highlighted the most interesting notes from Sacconaghi's statement, including:
- We anticipate that Apple will push its legal claims hard and unrelentingly and believe that the company's key goal is to upend Android's momentum by forcing a work around on key essential features which, if successful, could have huge, positive financial implications for Apple.
- Should Apple prevail in forcing Android to rework some of its functionality, resulting in market share shifts, it could have huge, positive financial implications for Apple...a 10 percentage point shift in smartphone market share from Android to Apple...is worth an estimated $30B+ in annual revenue and $10+ in annual EPS to Apple.
That's a lot of dough. Steve Jobs has long said that Apple takes its patents seriously, which Tim Cook recently reiterated: "We have a very simple view: we love competition, but we want people to invent their own stuff. And we're going to make sure we defend our portfolio."
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Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi believes that Apple is confident it will win current legal battles with HTC and Samsung, and is therefore in...
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The only;y difference between Apple and all the other patent trolls is that Apple actually has a product - which makes Apple vulnerable, now that Google has just glommed onto a few gazillion IBM patents.
July 29 2011 at 2:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyDepends on whether Apple is using anything from those IBM-patented ideas in its products, and the licencing terms it has/had with IBM. Otherwise, as far as Apple is concerned, they're worth nothing and don't need worrying about.
July 29 2011 at 3:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI find it hard to cheer on Apple in cases like this when we also complain of patent trolls suing the likes of small developers and even Apple themselves. Who really is the winner of cases like this, apart from the lawyers?
July 29 2011 at 12:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYup, certainly end users will not win.
July 29 2011 at 12:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyApple sues for everything.
https://plus.google.com/108730413722442439004/posts/MCzK76QUimR
I don't care how much Apple sues these guys! It's been apparent from day one what Google wanted to do, that's copy iOS. It's no coincedence that most Android phones look like freaking Iphones. BTW these patents are minor,,,Apple just was awarded the Multitouch Patent thats the one everybody should be worried about.
July 29 2011 at 9:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyConsidering the fact the Android was in development long before iOS was announced, I dont see where you get the claim. Second, the fact that Android Phones look like iPhones has nothing to do with Google, who doesn't manufacture them. The phones Google did have a hand in designing look NOTHING like the iPhone. In fact, 90% look nothing like the iPhone. Its okay to like Apple or Google but hop off.
July 29 2011 at 10:03 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"We have a very simple view: we love competition, but we want people to invent their own stuff. And we're going to make sure we defend our portfolio."
Especially when those patents cover things like "Using a DSP to decode video/audio streams" or "Autodetecting URLs or phone numbers in emails" like the two patents they sued HTC for. Look it up folks. They aren't suing because people are copying their innovative ideas, they are just plain out being patent trolls.
Until they start suing for something that really was unique to their system, it's hard to spin it any other way.
Patent trolls don't actually make the thing they patent, and then sit on it waiting for someone to spring the trap. Apple does have autodetect in their emails (sometimes drives me crazy), I assume their are doing something with DSP and their input streams too. I have zero respect for the trolls which patent an idea solely as an idea without a working thing, but if you patent, build and sell something, well then you took the financial risk, so should get the rewards (regardless of who the company is). It's not like HTC is some 2 person shop that couldn't have patented something , so there you go.
July 29 2011 at 12:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"We have a very simple view: we love competition, but we want people to invent their own stuff. And we're going to make sure we defend our portfolio."
Translation: "We don't want competition. We will sue anyone that copies us, but thanks for all the new features we swiped for IOS5."
That's not what they said, what they meant, or what they did. There's a world of difference between porting— and improving upon— a concept, and stealing an implementation wholesale.
July 29 2011 at 9:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyi was making a joke. the patents, minus the multitouch patent, are not patents they should have been granted in the first place. they are for simple functionality that should be available to everyone. Apple is doing nothing but trying to hamper competition by enforcing them. so i just think its funny that they say they love competition, when thats the last thing that they want on the mobile front.
July 29 2011 at 10:15 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down"Steve Jobs has long said that Apple takes it's patents very seriously"
ITS
Haha! This was probably written on an iPad. Darn Autocorrect!
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