News Articles

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Day the Multi-Touch Died?

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s not just me, is it?  The mobile industry really has gone a bit litigation crazy.

Nokia versus Apple. Apple versus Nokia. Nokia versus Apple again.

Motorola against RIM.

Kodak versus Samsung. Kodak versus LG.

Kodak versus Apple. Kodak versus RIM.

And those are just a few recent cases involving manufacturers.

Now we have Apple pitting itself against HTC in a case that could be a sign of a wider complaint against Google’s Android operating system. Google’s even issued a response despite not being named in Apple’s legal action.

Although there’s a chance this’ll be resolved without the help of the courts, it’s possible to imagine a scenario where one manufacturer complains about another and manages to block sales of the offending devices.

Consumers who’d bought one of the offending handsets could have key functionality disabled to satisfy the complainant… and that would lead to consumers receiving compensation from their original retailer.

We already have takeaway coffee cups that warn us about the risks of boiling water, apple pie wrappers that alert us about the hot filling and well-publicised peanut packets that state the obvious. It can’t be long before mobile phone packaging makes it very clear that any features could be changed or disabled without warning. With a valid legal complaint, your smartphone could be dumbed-down overnight!

 

Print
Author: The Fonecast
1 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Categories: OpinionNumber of views: 4576

Tags:

1 comments on article "The Day the Multi-Touch Died?"

0
0
Avatar image

Mark

3/5/2010 7:12 PM

Nick Bilton of the New York Times has created a diagram to illustrate legal action involving mobile technology patents: bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/an-explosion-of-mobile-patent-lawsuits/

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«March 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
26272829123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
1234567

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement