Let's get this straight, I agree wholeheartedly with Oracle (prior to their buying Sun), I don't believe in software patents period. But I also don't believe that people should have nuclear weapons. That doesn't mean I think the US should unilaterally disarm.
Apple and Microsoft built their operating systems during a period when many people thought you shouldn't patent software, indeed, when Bill Gates wrote Microsoft Basic, thee wasn't even widespread agreement on software copyright. They were able to appropriate what came before them mostly for free, and operate in an environment of relative legal calm. And now they've benefited from the privilege of that, they want to turn around and maintain their empires by punishing up and coming enterprises who threaten to disrupt them by poisoning the atmosphere.
Where would Apple be if Xerox had behaved like Apple and MSFT with respect to litigiousness? Where would the PC revolution have gone if IBM had won against the clone makers and maintained a monopoly over the PC? Apple is trying to "own" the smartphone like IBM tried to own the PC, not content with $150 billion in cash and 50% of the US market, they want to use the courts to prevent competition.
Until the US Patent Office/Courts stops granting bogus patents period, and nullifies the power of the existing software patents, the only way to fight the system is to use it.
> Where would Apple be if Xerox had behaved like Apple and MSFT with respect to litigiousness?
They tried and failed for a number of legal reasons, the fact that they had been paid for the access Apple was given amongst them. I'd also ask where would Xerox have been had Doug Engelbart, SRI or Donald Sutherland had been litigious; all had a case against Xerox.
Notably, Apple also tried and failed to sue Microsoft over the "desktop metaphor" in the 90s, which is also just as well. Things were quite different back then, to all of our benefit. No one had to pay 25 cents per copy to include scrollbars in their application, or 50 cents to include a dialog box.
Yes, but the article (and the "sponsored comment" at the end) also say that before the CAFC happened, it was a different, though equally painful, patent mess.
Apple and Microsoft built their operating systems during a period when many people thought you shouldn't patent software, indeed, when Bill Gates wrote Microsoft Basic, thee wasn't even widespread agreement on software copyright. They were able to appropriate what came before them mostly for free, and operate in an environment of relative legal calm. And now they've benefited from the privilege of that, they want to turn around and maintain their empires by punishing up and coming enterprises who threaten to disrupt them by poisoning the atmosphere.
Where would Apple be if Xerox had behaved like Apple and MSFT with respect to litigiousness? Where would the PC revolution have gone if IBM had won against the clone makers and maintained a monopoly over the PC? Apple is trying to "own" the smartphone like IBM tried to own the PC, not content with $150 billion in cash and 50% of the US market, they want to use the courts to prevent competition.
Until the US Patent Office/Courts stops granting bogus patents period, and nullifies the power of the existing software patents, the only way to fight the system is to use it.