Now Smartflash wants $1.6bn for its iTunes patents. Apple: You'll get nothing and like it!

Not content with a $533m payday, patent troll Smartflash is asking a US federal court to triple the infringement verdict it won against Apple and iTunes earlier this year. In a 49-page filing [PDF] with the Texas Eastern District court, Smartflash argued that February's jury award was insufficient and should be tripled to …

[gnasher729]

That was what I thought immediately. If there is no way to get around a patent, then it absolutely is too broad. That is exactly the reason why laws of physics or mathematical formulas cannot be patented.

[Hargrove]

root of the problem

I don't know the specifics of this case, but a general observation on the American scene.

In recent decades changes in legislation, and making the patent office's funding fee-based, have resulted in a sharp deterioration in the technical integrity of the process. Hypothetical concepts---even those violating all known principles of science and engineering--can be patented. Any claim that can be hung on the theoretical concept may be granted. And, by law, the granting of the patent (in the US) is de facto proof of the practicability of the concept. (I got this in writing from the patent office in response to a question regarding a patent for a scalable system to extract unlimited power from any point in the universe,)

This creates a situation where those who do the hard work of actually building and developing something are at the mercy of trolls who have done nothing more that patent an idea.

[Destroy All Monsters]

A pox on both of their houses

I hope the very bodies of management and legal departments break out in fleshy necrotic pustules hideous to look at which after ten days give birth to crawling hordes of insects that will feast on their very flesh till only quivering decaying remains are left in puddles on the floors of their overheated office palaces.

[x 7]

Re: A pox on both of their houses

have you been studying the kings Herod recently?

[nematoad]

Re: A pox on both of their houses

Agreed.

They may a pair of litigious, greedy lowlifes but it would seem that in the US the one with the biggest bank balance must be right. Otherwise why have they got so much money?

It's a strange echo of the Ancient Greek belief that if someone was beautiful then they could not possibly be evil.

[Mark 85]

This sounds like just raw greed...

They won. Now they want more? One would have thought that they would have been asking for this amount the first time around. Now it just sounds like "kick him again Charlie... he's got more money tucked away somewhere".

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate patent trolls and would welcome a return to the requirement that a patent filer must also file a working model/prototype.

However, for the company that patented the rounded rectangle to complain about broad patents? It made me chuckle.

[gnasher729]

What company patented a rounded rectangle? Are you mad? Rounded rectangles cannot be patented.

Oh, I see, you are confused by the difference between a utility patent and a "design patent". Yes, Apple has a design patent for a phone where the design consists of several parts, one of them being a rectangular shape with rounded corners. Guess what, so have others. For example Samsung. They have a design patent for a phone where the design consists of several parts, one of them being a rectangular shape with rounded corners.

The difference is that nobody copies Samsung phones...

And anybody is free to create devices with rounded corners - it's only infringement if you copy each single part of a design patent at the same time.

[MrDamage]

Utility/Design Patent

The reason why the "rounded corners" argument keeps being brought up by some, is because we are old enough to remember the "look and feel" lawsuit that Apple brought against Microsoft.

Apple tried it on with Microsoft, and failed. They resurrected the spectre of that long dead lawsuit when rounded corners was mentioned (either directly, or indirectly) in their lawsuit against Samsung.

But if you want to talk about nobody copies Samsung phones, you might want to think again about your Fruity firm. Nobody is copying Apple phones either, they're copying Sony and Samsung phones.

Want Proof?

[razorfishsl]

The US brought this upon themselves.

[x 7]

I think I'll patent an automated self-flagellation device and call it "SmartLash"