Wading Through Patent Infringement Treacle

The world of technology appears knee deep in legal actions alleging infringed patented of technology.

In the latest case Apple is claiming HTC has infringed 20 patents owned by Apple used in their iPhone’s .interface and its underlying hardware and architecture. It’s no secret that HTC is probably poses one of Apple’s greatest threats today and are behind Google’s Nexus One handset and several others that use Google's Android operating system. Not that that has anything to do with the action filed with the US International Trade Commission and a district court in Delaware and where Apple is seeking a lasting injunction which would bar HTC from selling phones that use the disputed technology in the US.

Meanwhile in an action started at the end of last year, Apple is being sued by Nokia for 10 patent infringements within the iPhone. Apple response was to countersuing Nokia in a tit for tat legal action claiming infringement of 13 of its patents. In a second case launched at the beginning of this year Nokia claims that Apple infringed seven further patents in almost all of its products.

Not only are the lawyers busy fighting these cases but Kodak have asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate the makers of the iPhone and Blackberry, over patent infringements on the technology used for previewing pictures. The technology in question has already scrutinised in court and in December last year , an ITC judge ruled that Samsung infringed upon the Kodak patent.

Finally, but probably not, Blackberry makers, Research in Motion won their defence of a patent case issued against them by Motorola after a UK Judge rejected the claims and also invalidated the Motorola patent. The decision will be a blow to Motorola who had claims with U.S. International Trade Commission seeking a ban on imports of BlackBerry smartphones into the USA.

This is not an advert, it's a Legend

When you watch the video of HTC’ s Legend and couple this with its availability in April and the experience we have had on the forerunner HTC Hero we know that iPhone is not having a clear run any more.

The HTC running Android 2.1 is a serious contender but coupled with the new features of the Legend and we ask the question why have an iPhone? We have full Skype for free on 3 plus premium Spotify as good a range of apps from the Android store and with the Legend’s OLED screen.

Another major plus is that it will support Flash which certainly is a step in the right direction over others who are in denial.

To see what we are talking about watch the video at T3.

HTC Hero, 3 Mobile and Spotify

Mobile phone operator 3 has been somewhat lagging behind the iPhone party in the UK but today has announced that like its pioneering of Skype it is to be the first to bundle Spotify’s premium music streaming service. The premium service usually costs £9.99 per month and is the only version that works on phones, allows downloads and offers higher quality sound. Although Spotify is available on an iPhone today you have to pay so this offer starts to rewrite the music market in the same way as they did with Skype and begs the question as to whether others will follow or expect their customers to pay for these premium services directly.

3 will bundle the Spotify service on their first Android phone, the HTC Hero , when it launches next month. The HTC Hero has a 3.2-inch HVGA display, AGPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a five mega-pixel autofocus camera and a MicroSD memory slot. The Hero also includes a dedicated search button that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or generally find stuff on the handset.

As We Await Apple

So as the world awaits Apple’s next announcements on Monday and the undoubted media blitz that will follow we have taken a quick look at some of the others vying for space in this crowded market.

Palm Pre
The Pre has made its long awaited entrance and now its down to the consumers to decide whether it lives up to the hype or becomes just another also ran. The webOS, Palm's new operating system enables concurrent applications open at once. You simply organized the apps like a row of cards and you flick the screen to switch between them. WebOS will also notify you of events that need your attention, no matter which application you're in. Again, making the iPhone look cumbersome and others just clumsy and slow. The Pre’s webOS aggregates contacts and calendar items from multiple sources, like Google, corporate Exchange servers, and can even insert your friends' Facebook photos into your contacts list. This obviously wins over the iPhone’s in many ways but is it enough to make consumers buy or even switch allegiance? Will we get iphone app overload and will the Pre give us the apps that are clearly driving this market?

Whether you get a Pre or not, its has clearly raised the bar on the software will leave its mark on the phones you buy in the future.

LG
We have long awaited LG GD910 mobile watch will be hitting the UK in July but unfortunately only being available via Orange and with a £1000 price tag. The price will almost certainly put off many from being James Bond but will it become a designer status symbol for chavs or merely a nice product at the wrong price? As previously reported it has a 1.4 inch touchscreen, looks good being only 14mm thick, has 7.2Mbps HSDPA, voice recognition, text to speech capability, Bluetooth, MP3 player and tells the time too.

HTC
HTC are about to unveil its third Andriod mobile and rumours suggest the announcement will be on June 24th . The HTC Hero is expected to launch in two models, one with touchscreen only and one packing a QWERTY keyboard and so offering appeal to all. With Google’s arsenal of potential opportunities and its cross platform design, the Andriod phones are certainly ones to watch.

ACER
Acer’s new Tempo F900 smartphone arrival to the UK appears imminent. First shown in Barcelona in February the device looks set to have a £429 price tag. It features a 3.8 inch VGA screen, Internet Explorer 6, with JavaScript and Adobe Flash Lite, and high-speed HSDPA. Acer has clearly stated it wants to be a smartphone player and have adopted Acer 2.0 user interface to aid navigation and ‘desktop’ customisation, in addition to Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube. Acer is not alone in the move from netbook to mobile and could bring some interesting user friendly aspects to the table.

INQ
UK based INQ is to launch a Twitter phone which it claims will be the first mass-market phone to have a client for the social networking phenomenon built-in. It will use the internet to send and receive tweets, rather than text messages. The question is what is so special and surely everyone else can easily follow. Like Skype you don’t buy a device just make it easy to twitter or do you?