Google, Dell, Facebook, Red Hat and Others Come Together To Fight Against Vaguely Worded Patents

| December 9, 2012 | 34 Replies

    Now this is big news that’s been a long time coming. But it appears that many of the big tech companies have come together to fight Apple and their vaguely worded patents. The group includes Google, Dell, Facebook, Homeaway, Intuit, Rackspace, Red Hat and Zynga. There may also be some Android manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung in there as well. Together they have filed an amicus brief with the US Court of Appeals. This brief is to suggest that courts stop honoring and upholding all these patents with purposely vague wording. So basically, the most of Apple’s patents.

    The brief filed covers every legal angle. But translated into words that those of us that didn’t go to law school can understand, is that phrases like “on a mobile device” or “over the internet” are way too broad and hence meaningless. After writing about many of the patent wars going in this year, many of us here at Android Headlines have felt the same way. This groups of tech companies feel that these types of patents should never be granted. And existing patents should not be upheld with such vague wording.

     Many computer-related patent claims just describe an abstract idea at a high level of generality and say to perform it on a computer or over the Internet. Such barebones claims grant exclusive rights over the abstract idea itself, with no limit on how the idea is implemented. Granting patent protection for such claims would impair, not promote, innovation by conferring exclusive rights on those who have not meaningfully innovated, and thereby penalizing those that do later innovate by blocking or taxing their applications of the abstract idea.

    Now of course Microsoft and Apple are absent from this group. That is because they own many patents with broad terms. And are the main reason these companies have come together to file this. They’ve also been suing just about everyone out there for infringing on these patents that have such vague wording.

    Of course, we all here at Android Headlines dislike Apple very much. That’s to be expected since we are an Android site. But it’s about time everyone else stepped in to appeal these patents. Hopefully we’ll see more companies joining this group to go against Apple, Microsoft and anyone else that owns a broad patent.

    So what are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.

    Source: All Things D

      Category: Android News

      About the Author ()

      I've been a huge fan of Android since the OG Motorola Droid hit back in 2009 on Verizon, since then I have gone on to own some of the best devices we've seen including the HTC EVO 4G, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, Nexus 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S3. I also have a passion for writing about anything having to do with Android.

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      • kennedy myril

        it’s about time.

        • Jose Gallegos

          It really is considering all the crap Apple does to actual innovative companies. “Shoot round edges sound so nice we should patent it since it’s so original!”- Apple when coming up with ideas.

      • Nick Schiwy

        This is fantastic news, hopefully it will lead to patent reform and therefore means there will only be logical and legitimate patent suits in the future

      • monkey082506

        Suck it crapple!

      • http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ Sascha Pallenberg

        Ok, so I’ve been reading this about 3 times now but I can’t find Samsung, HTC or Motorola in there. I think you wanna change the title and the content of your article mate

        • Matt McKean

          first paragraph, end of second sentence onward.

          • http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ Sascha Pallenberg

            you might wanna read the amicus brief to the US appeal court. This whole case has nothing to do with Motorola, HTC and Samsung. This is nonsense!

        • Blitz

          The group includes Google, Dell, Facebook, Homeaway, Intuit, Rackspace, Red Hat and Zynga. There are also some Android manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung in there as well.
          DUMBO can you read this?

          • http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ Sascha Pallenberg

            Hey, I am not sure if you are familiar with this case in general… it seems you just have no clue what you are talking about. At least you are pretty good in calling people names.
            Motorola, HTC and Samsung are not part of the group who wrote this amicus brief to the US appeal court!
            Read the god damn original brief that was sent to the court. Android Headlines just made this up, smartass!

            • Saved0ne

              Well said.

              • http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ Sascha Pallenberg

                well unfortunately not well enough for @alexandermaxham:disqus who just deleted my comment

          • http://www.androidheadlines.com/ Alexander Maxham

            I should have said “there may also be some android…”, because it was speculation on my part. But I have changed the title to make all of you happy again.

            • http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ Sascha Pallenberg

              but why did you delete my comments? Your article is plain wrong! HTC, Motorola and Samsung have nothing to do with this amicus brief! This isn’t about Android or mobile devices. This is about a a computerized way of closing financial transactions.
              You’ve made a whole new story out of this

          • Dr Woodhall

            Dumbo? How about keeping this civil. The wording is a bit vague. Now what?

      • Lee

        You really think Apple and Microsoft will lose? Good luck!!

        • http://www.androidheadlines.com/ Alexander Maxham

          Who said they would lose? We just want those stupidly broad patents to be gone.

        • APai

          the Steve Jobs” patent was trashed recently

          • http://www.mobilegeeks.de/ Sascha Pallenberg

            unfortunately it wasn’t. it was send back for re-examination!

            • APai

              :) I knew this was coming, I had edited out the part which i had written as ‘under process’.
              it would take sometime for the process to be completed
              and, of course apple would protest, but given the current patent trolls /madness going on – there would be some kind of patent reform for the better. and that would probably mean silly patents like those would be trashed.

      • Brandon S

        oh, if the world was patent free, I think everything would be much cheaper. yes, people would lose money, but who’s to say we should pay $100 on a $.12 pair of jeans anyways?

        • Zauber Paracelsus

          Are there even any jeans that cost 12 cents to make?

        • Dave Gio

          I;ve often thought this. But there would be no drive to invent new things. Thinking about myself. If I dedicated a number of years to creating something truly innovative I wouldn’t have the market power or wealth to bring it to fruition. Sure I may get loans or means to make say one factory. A corporation, say apple, with a lot of money could see the potential in my invention and make 100 factories a lot quicker. Plus if they put an apple on the back their reputation instantly makes their product more desirable and rghtfully so, they likely have the ability to find better quality parts, etc. The result is I lose all market share and all the time and effort I put into making this device is lost with no payout.

          So your right, things may be cheaper but maybe less inventive.

      • Pete

        Why aren’t the courts involved with this problem to begin with. The problem is already well understood, is it because the court system is unable. Maybe this action involving the companies in this challenge is what the courts are hoping for.

        • Knowles2

          It the patent office that sign of one these patents. The courts only get involve if someone trying to enforce a patent.

          What I think this gang of companies is try to do is to get the court to impose a rulings that new patents cant be granted for that was being done on a PC for decades just because it now being done on a mobile device. The patent office have granted new patents on the grounds that it is the first time it been done on a mobile or the internet.

      • Brandon VanVorst

        It would be nice to see all these companies coming together as one for once and sticking it to Apple & Mircosoft. The best way for technology to grow is by sharing idea and software/hardware designs. Also allowing other companies to grow give the market a boost for it brings more light to the tech industry to people who are clueless of the difference. There for making people better judges and smarter shoppers. But can we really consider Apple iOS fan boys intelligent and now adding Win8 in there as well, lol…

      • Dr Woodhall

        To which patents and/or what wording/language are we referring? I agree with the premise that big businesses try to cut a very wide swath, however, resistance is best planned with real specifics. What, exactly, are we addressing?

      • adrian

        great job people…..

      • http://twitter.com/mobilklasik_pml mobil-klasikantik

        Like nor dislike I want all the service are free and open for all user.

      • Ben

        Reading the linked article, the companies mentioned above aren’t directly involved in a legal action, but have filed a document in support of the defendant specifically taking issue with a particular vaguely worded patent (while also using it to make points about vaguely worded patents in general). The document helpfully includes a plain English translation of the patent in question (note: I haven’t read the actual patent itself, so I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this translation):

        “Stripped of jargon, representative method claim 33 simply breaks down the idea of a financial intermediary into four steps: (a) creating a debit and credit account for each party, (b) checking the account balances in the morning, (c) adjusting the account balances through the day, and (d) paying the parties at the end of the day if both parties have performed.”

        So you could argue there’s prior art in the fact that it describes one method by which financial transactions are already carried out – there’s no mention of how this abstract idea could be implemented (other than “on a computer” or “over the internet”), so they’re arguing that as it currently stands, the claim is unpatentable and the real innovation comes later, in describing a detailed implementation for a particular platform.

      • Frost

        I don’t know why you can say that an Android site hating Apple is to be expected.

      • Thorn

        Problem is not in Apple’s ridiculous “patents”, but “Patent Committee” itself – WHY all those patents like “piece of sh** with rounded angles” could be patented at all? Don’t members of committee receive money for patenting obvious trivia? THAT guys have to be charged and jailed first. Next – all judgement guys who never even doubt in patents despite their simplicity and too wide wording. And only next all these gays from Apple should be punished for obviously degrading action on the market, suppressing concurrency with their childish patents.

      • apple sucks

        Apple has ruled enough with the bloody absurd psycho patents

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