Apple, others sued over GPRS data transfer technology

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Apple, others sued over GPRS data transfer technology

Apple, along with a host of other well-known companies, has been sued by a Hawaii-based company over technologies related to GPRS 3G data transfer in the iPad and iPhone. AppleInsider reports that GPNE Corp. of Honolulu alleges that Apple is infringing upon three of its patents, by making and selling devices “with the ability to function with GPRS.” Specifically, the patents are related to a “Network Communication System Wherein a Node Obtains Resources for Transmitting Data by Transmitting Two Reservation Requests,” a “Communication System Wherein a Clocking Signal from a Controller, a Request from a Node, Acknowledgement of the Request, and Data Transferred from the Node are All Provided on Different Frequencies, Enabling Simultaneous Transmission of these Signals,” and a “Network Communication System with an Alignment Signal to Allow a Controller to Provide Messages to Nodes and Transmission of the Messages Over Four Independent Frequencies.” Other companies named in the suit include Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Garmin, Nokia, Pantech, Research in Motion, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson; GPNE is seeking damages, as well as ongoing post-judgement royalties.

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Comments

1

Well, at least in this case the party who actually “invented” the concept after it already existed in multiple iterations in commercial products is the party suing. That’s an improvement, right?

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on July 13, 2011 at 4:22 PM (PST)

2

That is definitely an improvement…!!! But look at it from both ways:

Patent a great idea. Wait and see if others invent something similar. Hope it hits main stream. When it does sue for damages and future royalties and collect a very large settlement.

Patent a great idea. Wait and see if others invent something similar. When they do immediately sue them. Collect small amount in damages and watch other solutions take off.

Hmmm…One is more ethical and one is more profitable. Right or wrong (wrong in my book) this is a Capitalist society and $$$ almost always rules.

Posted by The Dude on July 14, 2011 at 1:28 PM (PST)

3

@2 - You miss something in the timing there: these patents were issued *after* numerous engineers had not only come to the similar and obvious (to an electrical and/or computing engineer at least) solution to a problem, but also gone through the entire development and implementation of a product.

One of the three patents was issued just 10 months ago.

This is neither of your scenarios, but rather a see who is savvy and quick enough to get the next obvious tech idea patented then seek very large settlements because, of course, every tech company will have products using “your” idea since it was no more original than noticing you can solve for X in the equation 4X = 12 by dividing 12/4. Patents are being granted for logical iterative evolution of existing technologies, and that’s just a plain dumb idea.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on July 15, 2011 at 12:07 PM (PST)

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