About the Apple Patent that can disable cameras

Patetntly-Apple-Camera-Disabler

Must be a slow Tech news day for and old story making the round again.

Stereogum:

Apple Patents Technology To Disable iPhone Cameras At Concerts

Jason Snell chimed in and said:

I hope this is one patent Apple puts in the drawer and never, ever implements.

Then Gruber said:

This must be patent anything you can get a patent for patent.

Déjà vu! I remembered reading abou this some years ago.

Patently Apple on June 02, 2011:

This example could easily apply to movie theatres trying to stop customers from filming a movie for illegal distribution or any kind of music concert to protect an artist’s image from being photographed or videoed illegally

Even back then a lot of us agreed that this is just like what Gruber just said.

To quote Bad Religion:

Strewn about the battlefield of life are the remainders of history.
When convenient, we exalt them and pay them such respect,
As if we’re all in an equivalent trajectory.

Apparently a lot of people can easily forget.

Jurors Sided Against Newegg on Patent Lawsuit

An eight-person jury in Marshall, Texas found the online retailer Newegg to infringe on a patent owned by TQP Development, a non-practicing patent holder.

Ars Technica reports:

They also found the patent was not invalid, apparently rejecting arguments by famed cryptographer Whitfield Diffie, who took the stand on Friday to argue against the patent.

The jury ordered Newegg to pay $2.3 million, a bit less than half of the $5.1 million TQP’s damage expert had suggested.

Newegg said they will appeal the verdict.

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Disclaimer
I recently was hired on a project that involves Newegg as the client. I cannot discuss, let alone reveal the details of the project at this moment. I can safely say that the project is unrelated with Newegg patent lawsuit. I am also a Newegg customer.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus is preliminary banned in the USA.

I am pretty sure the it was an album title. Yep there’s an album titled “Banned in the USA” for sure.

From FOSS Patents Blog:

Apple wins U.S. preliminary injunction against the Samsung/Google Galaxy Nexus over Siri patent

Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has just granted Apple a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, an Android-based smartphone co-developed by Samsung and Google.

In the meantime, Google dropped the unlocked Galaxy Nexus price by $50 at Google Play Store; from $399 to $349. Better get it before the ban took effect.

The Android in Peril.

There are a lot of people cursing Apple’s name for suing HTC over Android. The ITC sides with Apple and concludes that HTC violates 2 of Apple’s patent. Sean Ludwig of VentureBeat dares to scream the headline: “Why Apple’s ITC patent victory over HTC Android phones is scary“.

It is pretty apparent that Apple-hating is so trendy these days in lights of the Apple v. HTC lawsuit. Unfortunately a lot of people seems to forget that HTC has waived the white flag when Microsoft came knocking. HTC is paying royalties to Microsoft for every Android phone it sold. Hating Microsoft is apparently so 1998. Does anyone remember that Microsoft recently demands Samsung to pay $15 for each Android phone it makes.

Microsoft is asserting some ownership to Android, that’s a bigger threat. HTC is not the only company to pay Android royalties to Microsoft.

Blame it on how easy anyone can abuse software patent.