HTC's 4G patent beef could get iPhone 5 BANNED in US • The Register This is pretty funny because Apple started the whole patent litigation nonsense. Samsung should have bought Palm just so it would control the original smartphone technology which the Iphone really copied.
The request to ban devices is nothing new. Companies do it all the time to that of their competitors, to use as a bargaining chip. After all, the other company really doesn't want their device banned (huge impact on sales, revenues, contractual obligations, marketing, etc.), so they'll have to either work around it, negotiate, pay a royalty, etc. I don't keep up w/all these patent lawsuits but AFAIK, Apple has a much stronger patent porfolio than HTC, so it's more likely Apple could assert something like "ok, we're infringing on these couple patents, but you're infringing on all of these" w/Apple having way more.
Besides, in order for a ban on import to affect sales, it has to happen before the items are imported into the US. Who here thinks Apple doesn't already have millions of units in the US ready to go on day 1 of sales?
I read an article a day or two ago about (I think) the new Kindle Fire and its 4G connectivity. Even if it was for something else, the gist was this: They were advertising the all new and specially designed antenna for it. The article said that consumers didn't really care about the antenna, but that it would essentially protect them from patent issues. Well, in the iPhone 5 announcement today, I saw similar verbiage about a specially designed antenna for 4G access. I wonder if it'll stop any patent issues with 4G technology patents.
More bad press for Samsung... Federal judge hands Samsung setback against Apple - Businessweek A judge denied the requested ban on the iPhone 5, and he further ruled that the patents in question "don't apply to any domestic industry", which sounds like a pretty huge blow to Samsung.
