back to article W3C moves to snuff Apple web patents

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has launched a bid to overturn two Apple patent filings that may apply to the HTML5 standard. The web standards group – which is responsible for the HTML5 spec – has asked the world to submit prior art on US patent applications 11/432,295 and 7,743,336. The patents cover ways to secure …

COMMENTS

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  1. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Happy

    Easy Peesey

    Patent HTML5 and don't let Apple have use of it until they surrender the two patents in question to the W3C.

    Patents work both ways Steve-o.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Headmaster

      But you can't patent that

      It's a spec, so USPTO will exceptionally say "no".

      You need some magic applicative dust ... "method to enrage superego CEOs of fruit-logo bearing companies"

    2. ThomH

      Not such a great plan

      In that it would create unpredictability for every other party wanting to use HTML5 that has played properly and hence doesn't have patents to trade with W3C.

      But, yes, I support the sentiment that Apple's hand should be forced somehow.

  2. thesykes

    that explains it then

    the real reason Jobs hates Flash and wants HTML5... for money.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      money

      is only thing Jobs wants.

      1. Tim Bates

        Money isn't the only thing...

        Steve also seems quite keen on making sure Apple make iEverything and brainwash the world into using iNferior products.

  3. Gil Grissum
    Pint

    HAH!!!

    Take that Apple. You can't have it both ways. I look forward to the W3C squashing these patents. Apple shareholders may question the validity of having too many pointless lawsuits going at the same time.

  4. Benny
    Thumb Down

    ffs

    Ok, this is really getting stupid now.

    Can't we just tell the US patent office that nobody else in the world is going to care until they stop handing out patents to every Tom, Dick and Harry (sorry, Tom, Richard and Harry)?

    Really getting stupid now.

  5. alwarming
    Stop

    Maybe APPL should move from CA to TX ?

    Life is much better for patent trolls there.

  6. Number6

    Software patents?

    If that's a software description, can't the world just agree to drop the brain-dead US system and let the rest of us implement HTML5 because software patents don't apply (yet) elsewhere? That's the best way to make the point, let the US stew in its own juices until the citizens demand decent patent reform because the existing system adversely affects them. Corporations might be able to deliver campaign dollars to DC, but it's the people who deliver the votes.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Seconded

      I'm an American and I second this motion.

    2. Velv
      FAIL

      Jurisdiction

      Don't you know that US law extends all over the Globe, applying everywhere. In fact, not just the globe, but space too. And not just local space, like the solar system, but, like, outer space too.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        Evil Thought

        Perhaps China should join the software patent bandwagon. Being the market that everyone wants to do business in. They need to end up with a system more borked than the US, say by requiring 50% ownership by chinese residents and then capping the number of patents each may own.

  7. Cliff Cheetham
    Unhappy

    sometimes you just have to wait long enough.......

    I was genuinely impressed as a semi-interested bystander that Apple were pushing an open standard versus a corporate proprietary alternative, it did seem like an unusual move at the time and I thought a potentially welcome one (eventually once every one had moved over).

    But sometimes you just have to wait long enough, now the real reason appears to have reared it's ugly head and it seems Apple didn't want any single company to have too much of a share of the internets favourite media format, unless it them!

    Yes I know these companies are obliged to make money and the nicey nice PR is there just to hide the fins popping out of the water, but every now and again you let your guard down for a second or two, open your life to hope and the betterment of humankind and BAMM a knife between the shoulder blades, I only caught a glimpse of my attacker, but I could swear he was wearing a dark polo neck.......

    1. Ru
      Flame

      Embrace, extend, etc

      This particular delightful habit wasn't ever limited to Microsoft or Cisco. Here comes the new oppressive monopolist, same as the old oppressive monopolist...

  8. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Stop

    WTF!

    "patents expert Florian Mueller"

    Bow Locks.

    This snake is no more a patent expert than he is a brain surgeon.

    I really, really, REALLY wish people would stop letting him give himself grandiose titles - better still don't quote him at all.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple ...

    Out. Of. Their. Fucking. Minds.

    But so is a system that allows this type of bollocks to flourish in the first place.

  10. majorursa
    Facepalm

    Arrogant

    How arrogant and selfish a paranoid megalomaniac do you need to be to even come up with that plan? I think this rotten Apple needs to lose this Steve more than M$ theirs. I couldn't stand him, though it was me, now enough reason to never ever buy (or recommend) anything made by that moron.

  11. Relgoshan

    Heh

    I bet Donald Duck also did HTML5 first.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Windows

    Predicting a deafening silence from the usual Apple-apologists on this one...

    in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1.

    1. Tom Maddox Silver badge
      Devil

      That . . .

      . . . and the deafening clicks of their down-votes.

    2. jubtastic1
      Thumb Up

      I'll bite.

      It's a stupid patent, there seems to be plenty of prior art, but the USPO will probably grant it anyway because they seem intent on fucking up the US economy. Given this reality, I can't blame Apple or anyone else, for attempting to grab as much stuff as they can since what they don't grab they'll be defending themselves against in the EDC of Texas.

      Additionally, it shouldn't be in the HTML spec, which is supposed to be about defining HTML elements, their behaviour and rendering. A mechanism for monitoring and reporting on browser activity is clearly well outside of the box model.

      So plenty of stupid to go round, all thanks to the Patent Office.

      1. gerryg
        FAIL

        overbite

        It's not the fault of the USPTO - no-one has to provide them with any work

        Any similar organisation could do one of two things

        - publish so it becomes prior art

        - patent and give an irrevocable licence to anyone that doesn't take the piss

        Some organisations indulge in the second best and sign up to OIN

      2. Old Handle

        @jubtastic1

        No, you can't fault companies from filling patents for defensive purposes as long as this BS system exists. But but if that's their intent, all they have to do is accept W3C's terms and agree not to enforce these patents against others.

  13. Eddy Ito
    Trollface

    How much cash?

    I know Apple has a rather large bucket but is it really worth the effort of depleting it to pay the lawyers? Unless most of Apple's shareholders are lawyers working these suits then it makes perfect sense. Drive the stock price high by holding a load of cash, sell said stock off getting premium price then collect all the cash behind it in lawsuit fees while the stock price plummets and buy in low and wait for the next cash pile to grow... rinse, repeat.

  14. This post has been deleted by its author

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Who declared Florian Mueller is an expert on anything?

    Seriously

    Google him in any discussion and you will see him repeatedly challenged and spit the dummy as others point out his less than stellar track record

  16. g e
    Stop

    Sad stuff

    Crapple are such a toxic force in innovation these days.

    I hope the W3C come up with some method of meaning HTML5 compliance is somehow implicity licensed until explicitly revoked then Jobs' company can be kicked back to the internet stoneage overnight at will if they want a pissing match.

    It's one thing actively trying to block innovation in competitor companies by sueing instead of couter-innovating but potentially fucking up shit for everyone is real News International popularity territory.

    1. Tim Bates

      Agree

      "toxic force in innovation" is a very good way of saying it. For starters, the iPad would never have come out if the CrunchPad hadn't been so talked about... The iPhone was a copy of the dozens of other smart phones already out at the time (albeit with more built in storage).

      And lets not forget how long Apple took to innovate things like MMS and copy and paste into the iPhone... I think they're now just starting to approach the levels of other smart phones that were available when they first released...

  17. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    an ex is a has-been and a spurt is a drip under pressure ...

    err, Florian Mueller isn't a 'patent expert' ... unless of course,your definition of expert is anyone who talks a lot .... In future I recommend research prior to quotation

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