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Apple Steals Another Android Feature, Further Contradicts The Company’s Ongoing Lawsuits

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by Josh O'Donnell on
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Apple’s hopelessly contradictory actions are beginning to become as transparent as the window I’m currently sitting next to. They’ve sued Motorola, HTC and let’s not forget about Apple suing Samsung over, and over, and over again. All of these suits are based upon intellectual property that Apple claims is theirs and only theirs to use. This happens all the time in the business world, especially one that is so fuelled by innovation like the mobile device industry. However Apple doesn’t seem to have any shame for any of these legal actions, even after they blatantly steal or rip off ideas from other companies, namely Google and their Android 4.0 mobile operating system.

Well it seems to have happened again, as the folks over at BGR have wrestled a screenshot from the upcoming March update and it features something that Ice Cream Sandwich users will be familiar with by now: the ability to access camera functions and unlock your phone with swipes to the left and right, respectively. To be honest, if Apple didn’t sue anything that looks at its intellectual property with anything but a wad of cash in their hand, I wouldn’t find this too worrisome. You know, business as usual for the business world. However given the fact that Apple is known for suing other companies voraciously over “stolen” property — even with Steve Job’s famous mantra (quoted from Picasso) “good artists copy, great artists steal” — I personally believe that Apple should be given a firm back hand regarding who they take legal action upon, and more specifically what they sue over. But that’s just my opinion.

source: android community

» See more articles by Josh O’Donnell


Categorized as Android News

  • AppleSucks

    Apple has already lost every last bit of respect i had..and same is for Steve Jobs

    • Anonymous

      I see what you did there, with the nickname :)
      Well played sir :)

  • AndroidSucks

    AndroidSucks, It’s Android that copied iOS in the first place, so what you are saying sounds like…Apple stealing from somebody who stole it from them??? Nice!

    • Cootang2

      What did android steal from iOS?

    • Josh O

      Please elaborate which features you’re speaking of, because you can’t possibly be talking about copying the idea for the entire OS.

    • Anonymous

      You are as ignorant as your name implies.

    • Anonymous

      Let me guess, you own an iPhone, you are no more than 18 years old, and you have never seen handheld device prior to year 2005?

      Am I close?

      Everything “iphone” is stolen from phone that has been on the market for 10 or more years. And let’s not forget, the “revolutionary” i-device couldn’t MMS or video conference till recently, while Nokia and many other manufactures, were doing it for a decade. That’s how “smart” was the smartphone from Apple.

    • Rararobot

      I guess I should also point out that Nokia 770, a touch screen tablet, came out 2-3 yrs before the iPhone or even the iPad did…hmmn… your move.

  • lloyd

    Geez, Josh says what the feature is right in the article. Anybody actually READ it?

         “the ability to access camera functions and
          unlock your phone with swipes to the left
          and right”

    I’d just like to remind the author that first to market does NOT mean that one has legal rights to the technology. You can’t argue that solely because ICS had this feature first that it wasn’t appropriated from Apple’s copyright bin before they got around to adding it to their phones.

    Honestly, I think Apple is saying that they own the rights to “swiping” anything.

    • Josh O

      I also say in the article that this would normally be looked over if it wasn’t for Apple patenting and suing anything that moves. Especially natural, organic gestures on a touchscreen that makes other manufacturers and developers between a rock and a hard place when trying to find an alternative that people will like and enjoy.

      Apples copyright of slide to unlock says, to paraphrase, that any image that you slide to unlock your phone is in direct conflict with their patent. Even if Android 5.0 used a Jelly Bean image that you must slide diagonally to a box (hypothetically of course) that is going to conflict with Apples patent. Androids current pattern unlock barely scrapes by, if at all. Its a monopoly Apple is out for and if you can’t see that… I don’t know what to say.

      • Josh O

        Overlooked*

    • Nasry Al-Haddad

      No one must get a patent for something not yet existing. You can’t patent an idea. Otherwise, anyone can start throwing out ideas and file patents for them.
      Whether or not Google stole the idea from Apple and implemented it first is something that I will never know.
      But what I know is that it’s so broad and generic to get such a patent (as slide to unlock). On a phone with a keypad, you can only do clicks on keys. So the unlock option must be that way.
      On the other hand, on a touch screen you can do clicks and swipes. So the unlock must be either in clicks and/or in swipes and those options should not to be patented.

      • http://twitter.com/Xezuka Xezuka II

        No one should, but it happens all the time. Thank the patent office… (dumb shits.. or bought; I still can’t figure it out)

        • Nisah Cheatham

          I think its dumb-shits

          • http://twitter.com/Xezuka Xezuka

            It’s actually correct as “dumb shits”… and while we’re at it, your “its” needs an apostrophe.

  • Subjectivism

    To put that in perspective, it was hard for Apple to assemble a team of iOS hardware and software engineers and build the device they first introduced in 2007, which spawned the idea of Android, so they have the right to sue left and right if they invented something, that nobody could and the same nobody later stole it

    • Shibbyboiz

      You’re saying no one could think of an advanced mobile operating system? Or a slide-to-unlock mechanism? Come on, those are fairly generic. How else are you supposed to unlock a TOUCH screen? Wink at it?

      • http://twitter.com/spectremANDROID Rico R

        Funny, you can do just that with Android now! LOL

    • Lawrence D’Oliveiro

      To put that in perspective, Android development started in 2003, and the company was acquired by Google in 2005. Rumours of the Iphone didn’t start to surface until about 2006.

      And remember that the Iphone didn’t even technically fill the bill of a “smartphone” (with the ability to run user-installable apps) until about 18 months after its first announcement, whereas Android had this ability right from the beginning.

      And if you want to narrow your claim of Apple’s “innovation” to the touch-screen idea, that was clearly stolen from the LG Prada, which came out 6 months before the first Iphone.

      So what was Apple’s “innovation” about, exactly?

  • Steven Beebe

    The existing lawsuits are over patents.  Did Google patent swipe left to access camera functions?  Really?

    • Josh O

      Over patents that (although some ARE legitimate by all means) are completely ridiculous. Look at the swipe-to-unlock one. Sure, they patented it. Awesome. They may as well patent how you tap a touch screen too, no?

  • Noah Gray

    Apple has the swipe to unlock patent…

  • Noah Gray

    Apple has the swipe to unlock patent…

  • RTWright

    Apple has been struggling ever since they shot themselves in the proverbial foot for putting their stupid iPhone only on AT&T.  Now Android has become so wide spread regardless of who wants to claim who stole what from who, Apple is feeling the sting of their mistake.  Also the fact that the Apple Suck-Ups that eat, breathe, drink and worship the ground that Apple urinates on refuse to see when Apple does anything wrong.

    Right now Apple would sue Samsung again if a nat walked across your screen and unlocked a program.  They’re losing market share to Android as far as the OS war is going.  Their iPhone would be falling dead to last behind all, if they had not opened themselves up to selling with other carriers.  This is nothing new for Apple, they always sling mud first and call foul then bring out the lawyers.

    A lot of the stuff that they claim to be THEIRS first they never designed to begin with, they took it from others far before any of this iAnything was around.  Push technology used on the web for instance that they claim is theirs?  How to turn text and numbers into links? Really???  I’ve been watching these BS lawsuits go rampant for some time now.  I hope someone wises up and just starts refusing Apple’s fit throwing and tell them to get their act together by accepting the fact they’re not the only ones around.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used Apple computers, because I’m forced to most of the times where I work.  I’m used to hearing the Apple-Lemmings stand up and defend this company as if they were some God to be worshiped and never looked upon.  But for the longest time the defenders never go back to learn the facts, they just spew nonsense and point fingers right along with Apple.  Blind leading the blind….

    What’s going on here is nothing new either, this has been going on since the claims of Microsoft stealing from Mac which stole from Xerox ages ago.  There is nothing original out here, it seems that if I put a single Pixel on a screen, I should get a Patent so I can sue everyone that uses this particular placement of a pixel.  Then I can join the ranks of Apple suing everyone that owns any kind of screen?  Hmmm, no thanks!  I have a bit more respect for myself than this.

    There needs to be some sort of reality check for Apple, because swiping something across a touch screen should not be something that can be sued for due to the fact, since it’s been pointed out several times.  How else are you going to do it on a Touch Screen? Hmmm? I think this kind of crap no matter who’s throwing it, is ridiculous.  The courts should look at this and go really? They did not come up with this technology it’s been around long before the iPhone ever seen blueprints let alone become reality!

  • Mj21

    Apple has been doing this sh*t for 30 years. They blatantly ripped off the graphical user interface from others, then tried to claim that they invented it and started suing people over trivialities. They also took industry standards, saved development time and money by building their hardware around them, and then introduced incompatibilities to ensure that people would have to buy their overpriced accessories.

    Apple has “evil”coded into their corporate genome. Almost every one of their successful products is a rip off of someone else’s idea.

  • Tony NoName

    Google just got the patent on this technology granted. It had been held up at the PTO since application submission back in 2009/2010. Now they can use it to go after Apple, but I think they’re still waiting on some more key patents to be granted in order to get a strangle hold on Apple and force them to either come to an agreement or lock them out of using many new features. 

    One of the main patents is on Drop Down Notifications. It was submitted in 2008 and has yet to be granted even though it fits all the guidelines of being Novel, Innovative, Unique in doing what others haven’t had until they copied it from Android. When that Patent is granted, that will be just one of the patent arrows they have to shoot CrApple in the back on!!! …..but not the most powerful. Together with all the patents they’ve bought from IBM (some of which were originally held by Apple), Motorola, others and their own portfolio, they will be welding some hefty weapons. Enough to make a laughing stock of Steve’s Inert Thermonuclear Cold War Threats!!!