Rauha: I agreed with you on Engadget, too. Nokia is preemptively rattling its massive lockbox of golden IP nuggets next to Job's head by way of saying "I could crush you like a bug." If Apple trots out its spurious multitouch patent, Nokia can hit them with something that has actually been tried and licensed for years.
Not desperation at all-- companies must defend their patents or risk losing the value of them.
Either this does not mean anything, or it is wrong.
Obviously, if you don't license your patent for money, or sue somone who uses it with no license, you get no monetary value out of it.
On the other hand, if you have a patent and a 100 companies use it for 15 years, and only then you decide to sue one of them, then neither the fact that you waited 15 years nor the fact that you sue only one company and don't bother with 99 others will cause the patent to be less valid.
My totally uneducated speculation: defensive case for introducing multitouch in Maemo 6 and Symbian ^4.
After Apple sues Nokia for infringing their multitouch patents, sneaky and filthy rich lawyers will do somekind of agreement to drop both cases.
I totally agree. Although I think that it’s completely ridicule from apple to make a patent of something so natural has a gesture (to zoom). Imagine if car makers need to pay royalties from the wheel.
I agree that obviously they don't have the kind monopoly in them as most macheadgeeks posting in techblogs think they do. Still, Apple has very strong patent portfolio in multi-touch that could very well be problematic for Nokia.
If anyone is following the engadget thread on this there have been some funny "multi-touch" comments.. the fanboys think that apple actualy developed the technology and concept... not just branded the term
Elan's move comes as Apple increases its threats to smartphone manufacturers regarding a patent it claims covers the use of multitouch interfaces on such devices. Should Elan's case be upheld in court, not only would Apple be beholden to the company for licensing, but it would mean its own patent would be invalidated due to prior art – something Apple will be keen to avoid.
Apparently Apple believes differently, which is the point. By having real, enforceable patents that Apple may be in violation of, Nokia can prevent any kind of "we own multitouch" nonsense from Apple.
Either this does not mean anything, or it is wrong.
Obviously, if you don't license your patent for money, or sue somone who uses it with no license, you get no monetary value out of it.
On the other hand, if you have a patent and a 100 companies use it for 15 years, and only then you decide to sue one of them, then neither the fact that you waited 15 years nor the fact that you sue only one company and don't bother with 99 others will cause the patent to be less valid.
It means something alright, and you'll have to argue your points with the courts (or you could just research the subject for further info).
Nothing new. Apple is always stealing other ppls stuff and passing it off as their 'innovation'. Creative scroll click technology as used in iPod comes to mind. They settled of course. Nokia should not accept payment but royalty on every single iPhone sold.
