Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by fpgeek on Friday November 01, 2013 @02:11AM (#6652098)

I agree that this will hurt Apple's reputation, but, in my opinion, this should already have been "priced in". Apple never really repented after the "look-and-feel" lawsuit. Many hackers just didn't notice because they were an underdog climbing out of a deep hole for so long.

Now that the worm has turned and Apple has their do-over we can see that they never changed their spots. They just improved their legal tactics.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by partyanimal on Friday November 01, 2013 @02:44AM (#6652196)

"The Rockstar consortium is an organization backed by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony."

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by buro9 on Friday November 01, 2013 @03:24AM (#6652331)

Not all members are equal parties and it's not hard to feel that the leaders in this group are Microsoft and Apple. They have the means, the motivation, and both have track record.

Blackberry are in no place to do this, Ericsson haven't been of this nature, and whilst Sony could they have enough distraction going on at the moment to focus their attention elsewhere. I also feel those three would gleefully follow Apple and Microsoft.

It looks and feels, from the viewpoint of a lay observer, to be an Apple and Microsoft effort.

Time will tell though, it may take a while but everything comes out in court, the good stuff and the bad.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by ZeroGravitas on Friday November 01, 2013 @07:17AM (#6652963)

Sony (and Nokia) have been patent trolling under the name MobileMedia for a while:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/jury-finds-iphone...

The CEO of the firm they set up to do the trolling is also the CEO of MPEG-LA that collects patent fees for H.264 and a few other royalty bearing standards.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by daviddumenil on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:34AM (#6652490)

It's worth noting that although the lawsuits were issued yesterday, the consortium was finalised in June 2011 when all of the group members were strongly involved in non-Android smartphones.

It's not unreasonable to suspect that this action was planned as part of that formation and priced into the bid.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by fpgeek on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:00AM (#6652572)

I'm not sure about Sony. I can't remember any non-Android smartphones they had in 2011.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by richardwhiuk on Friday November 01, 2013 @05:41AM (#6652708)

Presumably Sony are hoping to be the last Android manufacturer, because all of the rest have been sued?

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by sigzero on Friday November 01, 2013 @09:23AM (#6653474)

I find it odd that everybody is speculating Apple mostly and Microsoft when the article specifically states Rockstar is acting independently in this regardless of any former promises made by the consortium companies. But yes, time will tell.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by buro9 on Friday November 01, 2013 @09:25AM (#6653493)

Follow the money.

Not just the investment, but where the spoils of war will go afterwards and who the winners will be.

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Re:Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar... by bane on Friday November 01, 2013 @04:17AM (#6652449)

Apple "priced in" their legal retainers into the impressive profitability of their products.

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