By Here for your perusal are the five patents at the heart of the HTC countersuit against Apple. It sure looks like HTC may have been scraping the barrel to come up with this set of intellectual property from the archives, but the patents concern power management and the phone directory access. Nothing all that exciting, but you’ll notice the most recent patent (No. 7,716,505) was awarded only yesterday.
U.S. PATENT NO. 6,999,800
Method for power management of a smart phone
A method for power management of a smart phone having a power system, a mobile phone system operated in a standby, sleep, connection or off mode, and a PDA system operated in a normal, sleep or off modeU.S. PATENT NO. 7,716,505
Power control methods for a portable electronic device
A power control method for a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device comprises a power supply unit and a volatile memory for storing data when the power supply unit supplies power thereto. First, the portable electronic device is set to enter a deep sleep mode. Then, data accessed from the volatile memory is transferred to a non-volatile memory. Finally, except for maintaining sufficient power to restore the device, the power supply unit is turned off.U.S. PATENT NO. 5,541,988
Telephone dialler with a personalized page organization of telephone directory memory
An advanced telephone dialler has been described, incorporating a fast retrieval and dial telephone directory. The system simplifies the use of the telephone directory by using a single sliding or rotary key for scanning and selection of the name and number to be dialled and one button for speed dialling of the selected number.U.S. PATENT NO. 6,058,183
Telephone dialler with a personalized page organization of telephone
An advanced telephone dialler has been described, incorporating a fast retrieval and dial telephone directory. The system simplifies the use of the telephone directory by using a single sliding or rotary key for scanning and selection of the name and number to be dialled and one button for speed.U.S. PATENT NO. 6,320,957
Telephone dialler with easy access memory
An advanced telephone dialler has been described, incorporating a fast retrieval and dial telephone directory. The system simplifies the use of the telephone directory by using a single sliding or rotary key for scanning and selection of the name and number to be dialled and one button for speed dialling of the selected number.
If legal documents make up your leisure reading, here is the full complaint filing:
HTC ITC Complaint Date-Stamped Copy
[via All Things Digital]
Down with apple…why somone would waste there money on an Iphone is beyond me.
i’m kind of surprised there are even patents on some of these. of course, IANAL, and i didn’t read the full patent. and i am not making excuses in defense of apple. i love my droid
The fact that HTC have some hardware patents where Apple have mainly (or all?) software patents pleases me.
@Andrew I completely agree with you, I thought the apple suit against HTC was stupid and this one is equally stupid if not more so, as much as I like HTC, I guess the plan is fight fire with fire.
Imagine if someone had patented “Touch Screen Phone” or “saving contact information”, many of these ridiculous intellectual property rights are so pointless it’s amazing they are granted.
Maybe their point is to point out how stupid these patents can be. The power patent is not much different than apples payment about power to a camera. The Apple patent about nonlinear speed of a graphical object or whatever is all over the place in flash. All of it is just stupid.
I’m an avid user of the Android operating system and am happy to see the competition. Hopefully there can be a peaceful resolution in this matter simply because competition keeps prices low.
@cybersedan
you don’t get the point of the US patent system… HTC had to have to patents, exactly for the case that someone like apple sued them, so they can counter sue them… seriously, you can only fight ridiculous patens with ridiculous patens… HTC would never have used them against apple, they are just here for defense… and who can blame them for trying to defense themself… it would have been stupid had they sued someone with those patents, but for counter suing they are perfect:)
It’s just a patent battle, whether they’re stupid or not. A lot of times patent battles are settled out of court if both parties have patents that are contentious.
“I can use some of yours, you can use some of mine”. If one of the parties does not have (enough) patents for a possible counter-suit, this ‘trade’ can’t happen and that party would be on the loosing end.
I hope Apple learns to play nice from this. If Apple and HTC were political systems then Apple would be Nazism with their “Assimilate and/or be tossed into the ovens” HTC would be America coming to defend freedom for the Allies by taking the fight to the enemy.
What people don’t understand is that the purpose of this counter suit is not to get money from Apple, it’s to show how loose Apple’s, and other electronic device makers’ patents are. I can’t believe that some of these patents ever made it through the process. A patent is supposed to be for a very specific design and concept, not on the entire category of devices or software.
Power ones… Interesting.
i wonder if theres a patent for the power/sleep/wak up button if not its gonna be mine!!! muahahahaha
I’d love to see a judge grant an injunction preventing Apple from importing their phones.
I think it’s terrific Apple made and sells the iPhone — I wouldn’t want long term Apple kicked out of the US Market, but oh my god, how cool would it be for Apple to get kicked out even for a few days.
I really think when Apple finally gets HTC to court for violating their software patents, HTC will turn round and say “What ? But we licensed all that stuff off Microsoft HAha”
Patent lawsuits that are software based are really pointless in the long run, it’s like receiving a patent for:
It’s a necessary thing to be able to use and there isn’t really an appropriate alternative.
However HTC’s hardware patents as simple and broad as they are, should have higher merit than software / user interface patents. Ultimately the entire patent system does stifle competition with big businesses. At the same time It can also help independent inventors but if a large company were to “steal” the idea the lone inventor would be unable to financially back a lawsuit against the big business.
like receiving a patent for:
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It’s a necessary thing to be able to use and there isn’t really an appropriate alternative.
If they could patent how to buy a mobile/cell phone I’m sure we would all get done for copyright.
my guess is that for the cost of patenting these patents it will be passed down to the consumer so that everybody can have them. then the patents will be irrelevant once they expire or somehow phase out.
Fantastic news that HTC have these in their arsenal!
Some of these are actually quite in depth hardware processes for performing as opposed to Apple’s “the use of a finger to operate a phone” style.
The US patent system needs to be flushed. It’s rediculous how they approve some patents just to handicap some of the competitors. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is bribing going under the table.
I think Apple should just step down and keep to themselves. And HTC would do that anyway but I hope this thing gets settled to the point where I can enjoy my iPhone whupping Android phone without crap from Apple. Oh but wait, only Steve Jobs can be innovative…I forgot. And we’re all just supposed to have only one phone choice and that come from Apple. Want something else? too bad because all that exists is the iPhone. Down with innovation and choice! Long live Emperor Steve and the Apple Empire!
Interesting read, I didnt see it that way. http://rd3.ca