#Patentfun January 9-15 ’12

Android

#Patentfun is a weekly article written up to summarize the lawsuits surrounding the Android OS.

Okay, had almost decided to not post this week, but even with a busy weekend and all, I decided against it.  Now, this is a bit rushed out as I said it was a fully packed weekend and I’m just getting around to writing this up now (830pm Sunday).  So excuse the brevity.

I’m actually trying to flash my phone while I’m writing this, and it’s giving me some grief… grrgh.  (btw – thanks Renaud and Sylvain for the help)

Previously I had talked about reporting less of the ‘progress’ and more about the outcomes.  So here’s hoping it reduces much of the reporting work.

A while ago, Apple had the ITC look into Motorola’s potential for patent infringing (a first step into banning an item from coming into the market).  Well, on ‘freaky friday’ they released their findings that they believe Motorola did not any of the 3 claims that Apple made.  One of them being a very generic “multipoint touchscreen”.  Hrmm… Glad that didn’t fly.
This can be huge for the other Motorola cases out there.  And especially as they will soon be “Google’s manufacturer”.
Of course Apple will appeal their review… but we’ll see how that goes.  In the mean time, chalk one victory up for Android.
In this day and age, patents are like the best trading cards you can hold.  And when somebody sells them you wonder one of 2 things:  is the company selling because they need cash, or does the buy really want THOSE patents for a reason.
The company that bought the patents, Sisvel, you may think “who are they”.  Well, I did the same thing.  In the article it says that they had at one time been a bed buddy with Apple on some IP front.
So what does it mean?  Them getting some patents?  Who knows.  We know Nokia is feeling the pinch lately, … but maybe Sisvel has something up their sleeves.  Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Unlike Apple, who seems bent on destroying Android, Microsoft likes to kill the manufacturer’s softly by entering into licensing deals.  In the end, which is better… I’m not sure.  But, Microsoft has become quite good at inking these deals.  I think this is like #11 for them, which people are saying is 70% of all Android devices now.  Yoiks.  MS should just adopt Android, instead mucking around with a new WM7 with Nokia.

Now this is just sad.  I loved Kodak.  When I first started a long way back with cameras I was using Kodak film (until I switched to ilford…).  It was sad watching them just make less and less options of paper and film etc… and I think this is the final ring around the toilet for the company.  I wish them well, however, lashing out at those that are prospering because you are not.

Apparently this is an extension (addition) of the suit against Apple… but why bring it now … if they were infringing, you would have done it from the start.  I don’t see what’s different with HTC now…

Okay, so thanks for reading, and I hope a lot of this monkey-muck gets cleaned up… it’s just crazy.  AndroidPolice the other day asked “if Android was to disappear, what OS would you use”.  I wont’ get into MY answer, but the thought of ‘what if’ is pretty scary to me.  I’ve already gone through a dead OS with Palm… dang, I loved those things.  So here’s hoping that Google’s got something up their sleeves to help their manufacturing partners out with!

Back to the bloody phone… (kernel I uploaded doesn’t seem to like booting up… tsk tsk — I can get into recovery, but I didn’t put a  zip file in the phone to flash, and I can’t access the external SD — might have to go try ODIN’s method).

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